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[29.02] X-ray variability patterns and geometry of black hole binaries

A. A. Zdziarski (N. Copernicus Astronomical Center)

I will discuss some long-term variability patterns of black-hole binaries. They involve correlations between flux, hardness, rms variability, Compton reflection and the level of radio flux. The correlations have a number of implications for the radiative processes and geometry of accretion flows. A preferred scenario for the hard/low state contains of Compton upscattering of soft photons from an outer disk in a hot inner flow. In the soft/high state, Compton scattering appears to be by a hybrid, thermal/non-thermal electron distribution in variable flares above the surface of a cold disk.

Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#2
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.