The Emission from Inner Disk and Corona in the Low and Intermediate Spectral States of Black Hole X-ray Binaries

TL;DR

This paper models the coexistence of a cool inner disk and hot corona in black hole X-ray binaries during the low/hard state, explaining recent observations of such systems at low luminosities.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed model of inner disk formation via corona condensation, incorporating cooling processes and irradiation effects, to explain observed spectra in low/hard states.

Findings

Inner disk can exist at accretion rates of 0.006-0.03 Eddington

Model reproduces observed thermal temperatures and X-ray spectra

Coronal electron temperatures range from 1 to 5 billion Kelvin

Abstract

Recent observations reveal that a cool disk may survive in the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) for some black hole X-ray binaries in the canonical low/hard state. The spectrum is characterized by a power law with a photon index $\Gamma \sim 1.5-2.1$ in the range of 2-10 keV and a weak disk component with temperature of $\sim 0.2$ keV. In this work, We revisit the formation of such a cool, optically thick, geometrically thin disk in the most inner region of black hole X-ray binaries at the low/hard state within the context of disk accretion fed by condensation of hot corona. By taking into account the cooling process associated with both Compton and conductive processes in a corona, and the irradiation of the hot corona to the disk, we calculate the structure of the corona. For viscosity parameter $\alpha=0.2$, it's found that the inner disk can exist for accretion rate ranging from $\dot M \sim 0.006-0.03 \dot M_{\rm Edd}$, over which the electron temperatures of the corona are in the range of $1-5\times 10^9\ \rm K$ producing the hard X-ray emission. We calculate the emergent spectra of the inner disk and corona for different mass accretion rates. The effect of viscosity parameter $\alpha$ and albedo $a$ ($a$ is defined as the energy ratio of reflected radiation from the surface of the thin disk to incident radiation upon it from the corona) to the emergent spectra are also presented. Our model is used to explain the recent observations of GX 339-4 and Cyg X-1, in which the thin disk may exist at ISCO region in the low/hard state at luminosity around a few percent of $L_{\rm Edd}$. It's found that the observed maximal effective temperature of the thermal component and the hard X-ray photon index $\Gamma$ can be matched well by our model.