Programme
Accretion theory
Hendrik Spruit, Max-Planck Institut für Astrophysik,Germany
Lecture 1: Concepts - Download (Lectures 1 & 2)
- Gravitational potential, cirial theorem and virial temperature
- Accretion luminosity, Eddington characteristic luminosity
- Eddington accretion rate
- Black body temperature estimate
- Bondi accretion
- The hard X-ray flux problem
- Optical depth, trapping radius
Lecture 2 - Download (Lectures 1 & 2)
- Angular momentum, energy loss during accretion
- Disk formation, viscous disk spreading
- Solutions of the angular momentum problem
- Thin disks, consistency and limitations of the approximation, thin disk equations
Lecture 3 - Download
- Solutions for steady accretion, observational tests thereof
- Disk spectrum, modifications of spectrum by scattering
- Accretion on a slow rotator, accretion on a magnetosphere
- Alpha-parametrization, estimates for cataclysmic variables and X-ray binaries
- Radiation pressure dominated disks.
Lecture 4 - Download
- Disk instability, outburst cycles, superoutburst models,
- Introduction to radiatively inefficient accretion, ion tori and radiation tori
Lecture 5 - Download
- Super-Eddington accretion
- Coulomb interaction in hot plasmas
- Two-temperature accretion flows
- Thermal instability, branches of steady accretion
- The hard X-ray flux problem (again), coronae, truncated disks
Accretion in white dwarf systems
Brian Warner, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Lecture 1: Accretion from Interstellar and Circumstellar gas and dust - Download
- Introductory remarks on white dwarfs
- Accretion from the ISM and CSM
- Accretion from stellar winds
- White dwarf response to accretion
- Symbiotic stars and Super-soft sources
Lecture 2: Roche lobe overflow - Download
- Low (effectively zero) magnetic accretion
- Outburst light curves of dwarf novae
- Brightness variations on orbital time scales - Eclipse mapping, Doppler tomography, Orbital modulations, Superhumps
Lecture 3: Accretion with magnetic fields I - Download
- High field accretion (Polars)
Lecture 4: Accretion with magnetic fields II - Download
- Intermediate field accretion (Intermediate polars)
- Low field accretion
Lecture 5: Accretion onto pulsating white dwarfs - Download
Accretion in neutron star/black hole systems
Robert Hynes, Louisiana State University, USA
Lecture 1 - Download
- Geometry and classification of X-ray binaries
- Overview of multiwavelength observational capabilities
- Multiwavelength observations of outbursts in transient systems
- Recurrent transients and semi-persistent systems
Lecture 2 - Download
- Spectral energy distributions of X-ray binaries
- Observational issues in obtaining SEDs, e.g. reddening
- Predicted disk SEDs in X-ray binaries and comparison with observations
- Evidence for jets and circumbinary disks in infrared SEDs
Lecture 3 - Download
- Orbital lightcurves in X-ray binaries including ellipsoidal effects, X-ray heating, and eclipses
- Superhumps in X-ray binaries
- Disk warping and super-orbital periods
Lecture 4 - Download
- Emission line spectra of X-ray binaries
- Radial velocity curves in quiescence and mass determinations
- Doppler tomography as applied to X-ray binaries
- Parameter determination in persistent systems using emission lines
Lecture 5 - Download
- Multiwavelength observations of rapid variability
- Echo-mapping and echo-tomography
- Variability in low-luminosity and quiescent states
- Ultraviolet, optical, and infrared quasi-periodic oscillations.
Accretion and the evolution of binary systems
Philipp Podsiadlowski, University of Oxford, UK
Lecture 1: Binary Evolution: Fundamentals - Download
- Binary properties and classification
- The Roche potential
- Eccentric binaries
- The Algol paradox
- Mass transfer types
- Mass-transfer driving mechanisms
Lecture 2: Current Problems/Issues in Binary Evolution - Download
- Non-conservative mass transfer
- Common-envelope evolution
- Stellar mergers
- Tests of binary evolution: short-period subdwarf binaries, symbiotic binaries
- The origin of ultracompact binaries
Lecture 3: Late Stellar Evolution and Supernovae in Binaries - Download
- Supernova types
- The formation of neutron stars and black holes
- Electron-capture supernovae
- The final fate of single stars and stars in binaries
- The origin of supernova kicks
- The progenitors of Type Ia supernovae
- Gamma-ray bursts
Lecture 4: Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries and Millisecond Pulsars - Download
- Low- and intermediate-mass X-ray binaries
- The origin of millisecond pulsars
- Magnetic accretion
- The failure of the standard model
- Irradiation effects in binaries
Lecture 5: High-Mass X-Ray Binaries - Download
- Mass transfer in high-mass X-ray binaries
- Bondi-Hoyle wind accretion
- The formation of double neutron star binaries
- Thorne-Zytkow objects
- Black-hole binaries and ultraluminous X-ray sources
Accretion-powered binaries in other galaxies
Giuseppina Fabbiano, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA
Lecture 1: X-ray binary populations in galaxies - Download
a) Discovery and first conclusions.
- From Einstein to Chandra
b) Methods
- X-ray photometry
- X-ray Luminosity Functions (XLFs)
Lecture 2: The XLF of different stellar populations - Dowload
- X-ray binary populations - the evolution of binary stars
- A mirror of the parent stellar population - colors and XLFs
- HMXB XLF: the SFR connection
- LMXB XLF: galaxy mass and GCs
Lecture 3: Delving deeper into the LMXB population - Download
- GC LMXB properties and correlations
- X-ray spectra of GC and field LMXBs
- Spatial distributions
- Expanding the XLF
Lecture 4: - Download
a) LMXB population and ULXs
- Modeling the LMXB population
- Explaining the XLF.
- Transients detections and prediction
b) ULXs
- IMBHs.
- Association of ULXs with the star-forming population
- XLF statistics and the effect of IMBHs
Lecture 5: ULXs - Download
- High luminosity stellar sources?
- X-ray variability
- Spectra and BHB analogy
- Quasi-periodic oscillations
- Super-Soft ULXs
- The final word on BH mass
Observational characteristics of accretion onto black Holes I
Rob Fender, University of Southampton, UK
Lecture 1: Introduction - Download
- Outline the approach to the observational characteristics part of the course, outline division of labour with Prof Done:
- Populations, mass scalings, environment and feedback
- Role of black hole accretion throughout cosmological time (with examples)
- Currently observed populations of black holes
Lecture 2: Mass scalings and the AGN zoo. - Download
- Scaling of black hole accretion with mass (Luminosity / Size / Accretion disc temperature / timescales)
- The AGN zoo, and obscured vs unobscured AGN
- The cosmic X-ray background, and the Soltan argument
- The standard AGN 'unification' figure - is it all really just viewing angle ?
Lecture 3: Jets and outflows I - Download
- Jets: what are they and where do we see them ?
- Apparent superluminal motion
- Synchrotron emission and minimum energy --> the power of jets
Lecture 4: Jets and outflows II - Download
- Black hole X-ray binary outbursts: coupling of jets to accretion states
- Evidence for this coupling also in AGN ?
- Implications of universal accretion coupling for the Universe as a whole
Lecture 5: Open questions - Download
- What is the role of black hole spin ?
- Do jets from black hole regulate galaxy formation ?
- Open questions from the students (to be solicited earlier in the course)
Observational characteristics of accretion onto black Holes II
Prof Chris Done, University of Durham, UK
Lecture 1: - Download
- Discs. Shakura-Sunyaev, Novikov-Thorne, last stable orbit.
- Hydrogen ionisation
- instability, transient outbursts.
- Observational evidence.
Lecture 2: - Download
- Compton scattering.
- Thermal, non-thermal.
- Seed photons from disc.
- Seed photons from thermal electron cyclo-synchrotron.
- Observational evidence.
Lecture 3: - Download
- Reflection, iron line, ionisation, relativistic smearing,
- Ionisation instability from hard x-ray irradiation.
- Observational evidence.
Lecture 4: - Download
- But where to put the hot electrons?
- hot inner flow/truncated disc model to make spectral transitions and power spectral transitions.
- What happens at high mass accretion rates?
Lecture 5: - Download
- The role of jets.
- Synchrotron and synchrotron self-compton emission from highly
- relativistic electrons.
The theory of relativistic accretion flows
John Hawley, University of Virginia, USA
Lecture 1: Black Holes, Central Engines and Disk Accretion - Download
Lecture 2: Turbulent Transport in Disks and the Physics of the MRI - Download
Lecture 3: Computational Astrophysics - Download
Lecture 4: Local Simulations: The Shearing Box - Download
Lecture 5: Global Simulations of Black Hole Accretion and Jets - Download