Resonant Oscillations of Accretion Flow and Khz QPOS

High-frequency quasi-periodic variations (HF QPOs) in the X-ray light curves of black hole X-ray novae can be understood as oscillations of the accretion disk in a nonlinear 3:2 resonance. An m = 0 vertical oscillation near a black hole modulates the X-ray emission through gravitational lensing (light-bending) at the source. Certain oscillations of the accretion disk will also modulate the mass accretion rate, and in neutron-star systems this would lead to nearly periodic variations in brightness of the luminous boundary layer on the stellar surface – the amplitude of the neutron-star HF QPOs would be thus increased relative to the black hole systems. The “kHz QPOs” in black holes are in the hecto-Hz range.