Secondary maxima of black hole X-ray transients: A clue to understanding X-ray irradiation

Details Secondary maxima of black hole X-ray transients: A clue to understanding X-ray irradiation Secondary maxima of black hole X-ray transients: A clue to understanding X-ray irradiation

Aug 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994apj...431l..99m&link_type=abstract

The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 431, no. 2, pt. 2, p. L99-L101

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

20

Accretion Disks, Black Holes (Astronomy), X Rays, Gamma Ray Observatory, Luminosity, Solar Corona, Thermal Instability

Scientific paper

The secondary maxima are commonly observed in transient black hole candidates at 50-70 days after the main peaks. To investigate its physical origin, we build simple time-dependent disk models based on the disk instability model. We find that a mass transfer burst gives a rather slow rise, whereas an abrupt heating of the disk results in a rapid decay, both of which are inconsistent with the observations. To account for the observations, we require both an abrupt heating of the disk and a substantial mass supply. The abrupt heating could be caused by a sudden onset of the X-ray illumination when a Compton cloud, which so far blocked X-rays to the outer parts, becomes transparent or evaporates, while the mass supply may be due to either an enhanced mass outflow from the companion star or a transient recession of the cooling front in the disk. The minioutbursts observed in GRO J0422+32 after its main outburst could be triggered by a thermal instability, if the disk suffers X-ray illumination or an enhanced tidal dissipation.

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