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Low-mass X-ray binaries are stellar systems in which the primary star is a compact object and the
secondary star is filling its Roche lobe. Matter is transferred from the companion star to the compact object
and releases its gravitational potential energy mostly as high-energy radiation, making these systems the
brightest sources in the X-ray sky [126, 92].
The rate with which mass is transfered from the companion star to the compact object is determined by
the ratio of masses of the two stars, the evolutionary state of the companion star, and the orbital
separation [173]. On the other hand, the rate with which energy is released in the form of high-energy
radiation depends on the rate of mass transfer, on the state of the accretion flow (i.e., whether it is via a
geometrically thin disk or a geometrically thick but radiatively inefficient flow), and on whether
the compact object has a hard surface or an event horizon. Indeed, for a neutron-star system
in steady state, most of the released gravitational potential energy has to be radiated away
(only a small fraction heats the stellar core [26]), whereas for a black-hole system, a significant
amount of the potential energy may be advected inwards past the event horizon, and hence
may be forever lost from the observable universe. For similar systems, in the same accretion
state, one would therefore expect black holes to be systematically less luminous than neutron
stars [106].
The luminosities of transient black holes and neutron stars in their quiescent states most clearly show
this trend. When plotted against the orbital periods of the binary systems, which are used here as
observable proxies to the mass transfer rates, sources that are believed to be black holes, based on their
large masses, are systematically less luminous (Figure 6 and [106
, 61, 91]). Although the physical
mechanism behind the difference in luminosities is still a matter of debate [106, 18, 82], the trend
shown in Figure 6
appears to be a strong, albeit indirect, evidence for the presence of an event
horizon in compact objects with masses larger than the highest possible mass of a neutron
star.
Galactic black holes in some of their most luminous states (the so-called very high states) have mostly
thermal spectra in the soft X-rays with power-law tails that extend well into the soft -rays [68
]. It has
been hypothesized that these power-law tails are the result of Compton upscattering of soft X-ray photons
off the relativistic electrons that flow into the black-hole event horizon with speeds that approach the speed
of light and, therefore, constitute an observational signature of the presence of an event horizon (e.g.,
see [168, 84
]).
A relativistic converging flow has indeed the potential of producing power-law spectral tails (e.g.,
see [120, 167, 123]). However, this mechanism is identical to a second-order Fermi acceleration and hence
the power-law tail is a result of multiple scatterings away from the horizon with low energy exchange per
scattering rather than the result of very few scatterings of photons with ultrarelativistic electrons near the
black-hole horizon [128, 118]. Moreover, the model spectra always cut off at energies lower than the
electron rest mass [84, 109], whereas the observed spectra extend into the MeV range [68]. Successful
theoretical models of the power-law spectra of black holes that are based on Comptonization of soft
photons by non-thermal electrons [65], as well as the discovery of similar power-law tails in
the spectra of accreting neutron stars that extend to 100 – 200 keV [48, 47], have shown
conclusively that the observed power-law tails do not constitute evidence of black-hole event
horizons.
The thermal spectrum of a black-hole source in some of its most luminous states is believed to originate in a geometrically thin accretion disk. The temperature profile of such an accretion disk away from the black hole is determined entirely by energy conservation and is independent of the magnitude and properties of the mechanism that transports angular momentum and allows for matter to accrete (as long as this mechanism is local; see [146, 5]). The situation is very different, however, near the radius of the innermost stable circular orbit (hereafter ISCO).
Inside the ISCO, fluid elements cannot stay in circular orbits but instead quickly loose centrifugal
support and rapidly fall into the black hole. The density of the accretion disk inside the ISCO is very small
and the viscous heating is believed to be strongly diminished. It is, therefore, expected that only
material outside the ISCO contributes to the observed thermal spectrum. The temperature profile
of the accretion flow just outside the ISCO depends rather strongly on the mechanism that
transports angular momentum outwards and in particular on the magnitude of the torque at
the ISCO [80, 59
, 3
]. To lowest order, however, if the entire accretion disk spectrum can be
decomposed into a sum of black bodies, each at the local temperature of the radial annulus in
which it originates, then the highest temperature will be that of the plasma near the ISCO and
the corresponding flux of radiation will be directly proportional to the square of the ISCO
radius.
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Phenomenological fits of multi-temperature black-body models to the observed spectra of
black holes provide strong support to the above interpretation. When model spectra are fit to
observations of any given black hole in luminosity states that differ by more than one order of
magnitude, the inferred ISCO radius remains approximately constant [86]. For systems with
a dynamically measured mass and with a known distance, such an observation can lead to
a measurement of the physical size of the ISCO and hence of the spin of the black hole (see
Figure 7) [187
, 64].
There are a number of complications associated with producing the model spectra of multi-temperature black-body disks that are required in measuring spectroscopically the ISCO radius around a black hole. First, as discussed above, the temperature profile of an accretion disk at the region around the ISCO depends very strongly on the details of the mechanism of angular momentum transport, which are poorly understood [80, 59, 3]. Second, the vertical structure of the disk at each annulus, which determines the emerging spectrum, may or may not be in hydrostatic equilibrium near the ISCO, as it is often assumed, and its structure depends strongly on the external irradiation of the disk plasma by photons that originate in other parts of the disk. Finally, material in the inner accretion disk is highly ionized and often far from local thermodynamic equilibrium, generating spectra that can be significantly different from black bodies [72].
There have been a number of approximate models of multi-temperature accretion disks that take into
account some of these effects, in a phenomenological or ab initio way. The models of Li et al. [87], based on
the alpha model for angular momentum transport, assume that the local emission from each annulus is a
black body at the local temperature, and take into account the strong lensing of the emitted photons by the
central black hole. On the other hand, the models of Davis et al. [41] are the result of ionization-equilibrium
and radiative-transfer calculations at each annulus; they are based on the alpha model for angular
momentum but allow for non-zero torques at the ISCO, and take into account the strong lensing of photons
by the black hole.
Given the flux of the accretion disk measured by an observer on Earth, the color temperature
that corresponds to the innermost region in the disk that is emitting (which presumably is near the ISCO),
the distance
to the source, and the mass
of the black hole, the spin
of the black hole can be
inferred [187] by equating the radius of the ISCO, i.e.,
Fitting these spectral models to a number of observations of black-hole candidates with
dynamically measured masses has resulted in approximate measurements of their spins: a 0.7 for
GRS 1915+105 [96, 93]; a = 0.75 – 0.85 for 4U 1543–47 [145
]; a = 0.65 – 0.75 for GRO J1655–40 [145].
It is remarkable that all inferred values of the black-hole spins are high, comparable to the maximum
allowed by the Kerr solution.
Equations (20) and (21
) demonstrate the strong dependence of the inferred values of black-hole spins on
various observable quantities (the mass of, distance to, and inclination of the black hole, as well as the flux,
and temperature of its disk spectrum) and on a model parameter (the color correction factor
). Numerical simulations of magnetohydrodynamic flows onto black holes are finely tuned to
resolve the length and timescales of phenomena that occur in the vicinity of the horizon of
a black hole (see, e.g., [60, 42]). When such models incorporate accurate multi-dimensional
radiative transfer, they will provide the best theoretical spectra to be compared directly to
observations (see, e.g., [20]). Moreover, monitoring of the same sources at long wavelengths will
improve the measurements of their masses and distances. Finally, combination of this with
other methods based on line spectra and the rapid variability properties of accreting black
holes will enable us to tighten the uncertainties in the various model parameters and observed
quantities that enter Equation (20
) and measure with high precision the spins of galactic black
holes.
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