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