Testing slim-disk models on the thermal spectra of LMC X-3
Slim-disk models describe advective accretion flows at high luminosities, while reducing to the standard thin disk form in the low luminosity limit. We have developed a new spectral model, slimbb, within the framework of XSPEC, which describes fully relativistic slim-disk accretion and includes phot...
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Published in | Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) Vol. 533; p. A67 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Les Ulis
EDP Sciences
01.09.2011
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Slim-disk models describe advective accretion flows at high luminosities, while reducing to the standard thin disk form in the low luminosity limit. We have developed a new spectral model, slimbb, within the framework of XSPEC, which describes fully relativistic slim-disk accretion and includes photon ray-tracing that starts from the disk photosphere, rather than the equatorial plane. We demonstrate the features of this model by applying it to RXTE spectra of the persistent black-hole X-ray binary LMC X-3. LMC X-3 has the virtues of exhibiting large intensity variations while maintaining itself in soft spectral states which are well described using accretion-disk models, making it an ideal candidate to test the aptness of slimbb. Our results demonstrate consistency between the low-luminosity (thin-disk) and high luminosity (slim-disk) regimes. The results also illustrate that advection alone does not solve the problem of the origin of the surprisingly soft high-luminosity spectra in LMC X-3. We show that X-ray continuum-fitting in the high accretion rate regime can powerfully test black-hole accretion disk models. |
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Bibliography: | dkey:10.1051/0004-6361/201117385 istex:16B64A1A0EE0F58005C24E40B9C9557E46BFF638 bibcode:2011A%26A...533A..67S publisher-ID:aa17385-11 e-mail: odele@camk.edu.pl ark:/67375/80W-M33XDK59-Z |
ISSN: | 0004-6361 1432-0746 |
DOI: | 10.1051/0004-6361/201117385 |