The Existence of Inner Cool Disks in the Low Hard State of Accreting Black Holes

TL;DR

This paper presents a model showing that weak, cool inner disks can exist in the low hard state of black hole systems due to condensation from corona, influencing their X-ray and optical emissions.

Contribution

It introduces a thermal conduction-based model for corona-disk interaction, highlighting the role of Compton cooling in maintaining inner disks at low luminosities.

Findings

Inner disks can exist at 0.001-0.02 Eddington luminosity for certain viscosity parameters.

Compton cooling significantly influences the condensation process.

Inner cool disks may also be relevant in low luminosity active galactic nuclei.

Abstract

The condensation of matter from a corona to a cool, optically thick inner disk is investigated for black hole X-ray transient systems in the low hard state. A description of a simple model for the exchange of energy and mass between corona and disk originating from thermal conduction is presented, taking into account the effect of Compton cooling of the corona by photons from the underlying disk. It is found that a weak, condensation-fed inner disk can be present in the low hard state of black hole transient systems for a range of luminosities which depend on the magnitude of the viscosity parameter. For $\alpha \sim 0.1-0.4$ an inner disk can exist for luminosities in the range $\sim 0.001- 0.02$ Eddington value. The model is applied to the X-ray observations of the black hole candidate sources GX 339-4 and Swift J1753.5-0127 in their low hard state. It is found that Compton cooling is important in the condensation process, leading to the maintenance of cool inner disks in both systems. As the results of the evaporation/condensation model are independent of the black hole mass, it is suggested that such inner cool disks may contribute to the optical and ultraviolet emission of low luminosity active galactic nuclei.