Mass and spin co-evolution during the alignment of a black hole in a warped accretion disc

In this paper, we explore the gravitomagnetic interaction of a black hole (BH) with a misaligned accretion disc to study BH spin precession and alignment jointly with BH mass M _BH and spin parameter a evolution, under the assumption that the disc is continually fed, in its outer region, by matter with angular momentum fixed on a given direction     . We develop an iterative scheme based on the adiabatic approximation to study the BH–disc co-evolution: in this approach, the accretion disc transits through a sequence of quasi-steady warped states (Bardeen–Petterson effect) and interacts with the BH until the spin   J _BH  aligns with     . For a BH aligning with a corotating disc, the fractional increase in mass is typically less than a few per cent, while the spin modulus can increase up to a few tens of per cent. The alignment time-scale     is of  ∼10⁵–10⁶ yr  for a maximally rotating BH accreting at the Eddington rate. BH–disc alignment from an initially counter-rotating disc tends to be more efficient compared to the specular corotating case due to the asymmetry seeded in the Kerr metric: counter-rotating matter carries a larger and opposite angular momentum when crossing the innermost stable orbit, so that the spin modulus decreases faster and so the relative inclination angle.     

Corotational damping of discoseismic c modes in black hole accretion discs

Discoseismic c modes in accretion discs have been invoked to explain low-frequency variabilities observed in black hole X-ray binaries. These modes are trapped in the innermost region of the disc and have frequencies much lower than the rotation frequency at the disc inner radius. We show that because the trapped waves can tunnel through the evanescent barrier to the corotational wave zone, the c modes are damped due to wave absorption at the corotation resonance. We calculate the corotational damping rates of various c modes using the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) approximation. The damping rate varies widely depending on the mode frequency, the black hole spin parameter and the disc sound speed, and is generally much less than 10 per cent of the mode frequency. A sufficiently strong excitation mechanism is needed to overcome this corotational damping and make the mode observable.     

The stability of accretion discs with inflow driven purely by magnetic winds

A model is presented for an accretion disc in which the inflow is driven purely by the angular momentum removed in a centrifugally accelerated magnetic wind. Turbulent discs around compact stars are considered, with the required magnetic field being generated in the disc by a simple dynamo. The turbulent magnetic Prandtl number, N _p, measures the ratio of turbulent viscosity to turbulent magnetic diffusivity. Formally, the hypothetical limit   N _p→ 0  corresponds to the magnetic wind torque dominating the viscous torque, but in practice the inflow is magnetically controlled for   N _p≲ 0.1  .
The suggestion by previous authors that purely magnetic wind-driven discs may be unstable is investigated. A detailed steady solution is found which allows perturbations to the thermal balance and vertical equilibrium to be calculated, and hence the effect of perturbations to the magnetic diffusivity, η, to be assessed. For a standard parametrized form of η, the wind-driven angular momentum balance is found to be linearly unstable. An increase in the inflow rate leads to increased bending of the poloidal magnetic field and an enhanced wind mass loss rate. This increases the angular momentum loss rate which drives further inflow. There is a resultant increase in η, due to the temperature perturbation, but this does not relieve field bending sufficiently to prevent the instability.     

Inflow and outflow from the accretion disc of the microquasar SS 433: UKIRT spectroscopy

A succession of near-infrared (near-IR) spectroscopic observations, taken nightly throughout an entire cycle of SS 433's orbit, reveal (i) the persistent signature of SS 433's accretion disc, having a rotation speed of  ∼500 km s⁻¹  , (ii) the presence of circumbinary disc recently discovered at optical wavelengths by Blundell, Bowler & Schmidtobreick (2008) and (iii) a much faster outflow than has previously been measured for the disc wind, with a terminal velocity of  ∼1500 km s⁻¹  . The increased wind terminal velocity results in a mass-loss rate of  ∼10⁻⁴ M_⊙ yr⁻¹  . These, together with the newly (upwardly) determined masses for the components of the SS 433 system, result in an accurate diagnosis of the extent to which SS 433 has super-Eddington flows. Our observations imply that the size of the companion star is comparable with the semiminor axis of the orbit which is given by     , where e is the eccentricity. Our relatively spectral resolution at these near-IR wavelengths has enabled us to deconstruct the different components that comprise the Brackett-γ (Brγ) line in this binary system, and their physical origins. With this line being dominated throughout our series of observations by the disc wind, and the accretion disc itself being only a minority (∼15 per cent) contribution, we caution against use of the unresolved Brγ line intensity as an 'accretion signature' in X-ray binaries or microquasars in any quantitative way.     

A comparative analysis of standard accretion discs spectra: an application to ultraluminous X-ray sources

We compare standard models of accretion discs around black holes (BHs) that include the appropriate zero-torque inner boundary condition and relativistic effects on the emission and propagation of radiation. The comparison is performed adopting the multicolour disc blackbody model (MCD) as reference and looking for the parameter space in which it is in statistical agreement with 'more physical' accretion disc models. We find simple 'recipes' that can be used for adjusting the estimates of the physical inner radius of the disc, the BH mass and the accretion rate inferred using the parameters of the MCD fits. We applied these results to four ultraluminous X-ray sources for which MCD spectral fits of their X-ray soft spectral components have been published and find that, in three cases (NGC 1313 X-1, X-2 and M 81 X-9), the BH masses inferred for a standard disc around a Schwarzschild BH are in the interval  ∼100–200 M_⊙  . Only if the BH is maximally rotating are the masses comparable to the much larger values previously derived in the literature.     

Inertial waves near corotation in three-dimensional hydrodynamical discs

This paper concerns the interaction between non-axisymmetric inertial waves and their corotation resonances in a hydrodynamical disc. Inertial waves are of interest because they can localize in resonant cavities circumscribed by Lindblad radii and, as a consequence, can exhibit discrete oscillation frequencies that may be observed. It is often hypothesized that these trapped eigenmodes are affiliated with the poorly understood quasi-periodic oscillation phenomenon. We demonstrate that a large class of non-axisymmetric three-dimensional (3D) inertial waves cannot manifest as trapped normal modes. This class includes any inertial wave whose resonant cavity contains a corotation singularity. Instead, these 'singular' modes constitute a continuous spectrum and, as an ensemble, are convected with the flow, giving rise to shearing waves. Finally, we present a simple demonstration of how the corotation singularity stabilizes 3D perturbations in a slender torus.     

The formation of submillisecond pulsars and the possibility of detection

Pulsars have been recognized to be normal neutron stars, but sometimes have been argued to be quark stars. Submillisecond pulsars, if detected, would play an essential and important role in distinguishing quark stars from neutron stars. We focus on the formation of such submillisecond pulsars in this paper. A new approach to the formation of a submillisecond pulsar (quark star) by means of the accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of a white dwarf is investigated. Under this AIC process, we found that: (i) almost all newborn quark stars could have an initial spin period of ∼0.1 ms; (ii) nascent quark stars (even with a low mass) have a sufficiently high spin-down luminosity and satisfy the conditions for pair production and sparking process and appear as submillisecond radio pulsars; (iii) in most cases, the times of newborn quark stars in the phase with spin period <1 (or <0.5) ms are long enough for the stars to be detected.
As a comparison, an accretion spin-up process (for both neutron and quark stars) is also investigated. It is found that quark stars formed through the AIC process can have shorter periods (≤0.5 ms), whereas the periods of neutron stars formed in accretion spin-up processes must be longer than 0.5 ms. Thus, if a pulsar with a period shorter than 0.5 ms is identified in the future, it could be a quark star.     

Swift observations of GW Lib: a unique insight into a rare outburst

The second known outburst of the WZ Sge type dwarf nova GW Lib was observed in 2007 April. We have obtained unique multiwavelength data of this outburst which lasted ∼26 days. The American Association of Variable Star Observers ( AAVSO ) recorded the outburst in the optical, which was also monitored by Wide Angle Search for Planets , with a peak V magnitude of ∼8. The outburst was followed in the ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths by the Swift ultraviolet/optical and X-ray telescopes. The X-ray flux at optical maximum was found to be three orders of magnitude above the pre-outburst quiescent level, whereas X-rays are normally suppressed during dwarf nova outbursts. A distinct supersoft X-ray component was also detected at optical maximum, which probably arises from an optically thick boundary layer. Follow-up Swift observations taken 1 and 2 years after the outburst show that the post-outburst quiescent X-ray flux remains an order of magnitude higher than the pre-outburst flux. The long interoutburst time-scale of GW Lib with no observed normal outbursts support the idea that the inner disc in GW Lib is evacuated or the disc viscosity is very low.