Spherical accretion onto neutron stars and black holes

TL;DR

This paper investigates how spherical accretion onto neutron stars and black holes produces characteristic X-ray spectra, emphasizing the role of bulk motion Comptonization in forming power-law energy distributions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that bulk motion of accreting gas is more effective than thermal processes in shaping the observed spectra, providing evidence for black hole identification.

Findings

Spectra are power laws with exponential cutoffs near the electron rest mass.

Bulk motion Comptonization dominates over thermal Comptonization in spectral formation.

Extended power-law spectra up to the electron rest mass support black hole presence.

Abstract

Spectral formation in steady state, spherical accretion onto neutron stars and black holes is examined by solving numerically and analytically the equation of radiative transfer. The photons escape diffusively and their energy gains come from their scattering off thermal electrons in the converging flow of the accreting gas. We show that the bulk motion of the flow is more efficient in upscattering photons than thermal Comptonization in the range of non-relativistic electron temperatures. The spectrum observed at infinity is a power law with an exponential turnover at energies of order the electron rest mass. Especially in the case of accretion into a black hole, the spectral energy power-law index is distributed around 1.5. Because bulk motion near the horizon (1-5 Schwarzschild radii) is most likely a necessary characteristic of accretion into a black hole, we claim that observations of an extended power law up to about the electron rest mass, formed as a result of bulk motion Comptonization, is a real observational evidence for the existence of an underlying black hole.