Stochastic acceleration in accreting black holes

TL;DR

This paper extends the BELM code to study stochastic particle acceleration in black hole accretion disc coronae, highlighting the role of proton temperature and providing a preliminary spectral fit for Cygnus X-1.

Contribution

The paper introduces an enhanced version of the BELM code that models wave-particle interactions involving leptons and protons in black hole coronae.

Findings

Proton temperature significantly influences stochastic acceleration.

The extended code successfully models high soft spectral states.

Preliminary spectral fits for Cygnus X-1 are achieved.

Abstract

We present an extension of the BELM code (Belmont et al 2008) to investigate the microphysics of particle acceleration in black holes accretion disc corona. The updated version of the code accounts for the dynamics of resonant slab waves as well as their interaction with both leptons or protons. It is found that the proton temperature is an important regulating effect of the stochastic particle acceleration process in accretion disk corona. We present a preliminary fit of the high soft spectral state of Cygnus X-1.