Premium
Global oscillations of a fluid torus as a modulation mechanism for black‐hole high‐frequency QPOs
Author(s) -
Bursa M.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.200510426
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , accretion (finance) , oscillation (cell signaling) , torus , quasar , schwarzschild metric , black hole (networking) , classical mechanics , general relativity , geometry , galaxy , computer network , routing protocol , mathematics , routing (electronic design automation) , biology , computer science , genetics , link state routing protocol
We study strong‐gravity effects on modulation of radiation emerging from accreting compact objects as a possible mechanism for flux modulation in QPOs. We construct a toy model of an oscillating torus in the slender approximation assuming thermal bremsstrahlung for the intrinsic emissivity of the medium and we compute observed (predicted) radiation signal including contribution of indirect (higher‐order) images and caustics in the Schwarzschild spacetime. We show that the simplest oscillation mode in an accretion flow, axisymmetric up‐and‐down motion at the meridional epicyclic frequency, may be directly observable when it occurs in the inner parts of accretion flow around black holes. Together with the second oscillation mode, an in‐and‐out motion at the radial epicyclic frequency, it may then be responsible for the high‐frequency modulations of the X‐ray flux observed at two distinct frequencies (twin HF‐QPOs) in micro‐quasars. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)