Testing slim-disk models on the thermal spectra of LMC X-3

O. Straub, M. Bursa, A. Sa¸dowski, J. F. Steiner, M. A. Abramowicz, W. Kluźniak, J. E. McClintock, R. Narayan, R. A. Remillard
2011 Astronomy and Astrophysics  
Slim-disk models describe accretion flows at high luminosities, while reducing to the standard thin disk form in the low luminosity limit. We have developed a new spectral model, slimbb, within the framework of XSPEC, which describes fully relativistic slim-disk accretion and includes photon ray-tracing that starts from the disk photosphere, rather than the equatorial plane. We demonstrate the features of this model by applying it to RXTE spectra of the persistent black-hole X-ray binary LMC
more » ... . LMC X-3 has the virtues of exhibiting large intensity variations while maintaining itself in soft spectral states which are well described using accretion-disk models, making it an ideal candidate to test the aptness of slimbb. Our results demonstrate consistency between the low-luminosity (thin-disk) and high luminosity (slim-disk) regimes. We also show that X-ray continuum-fitting in the high accretion rate regime can powerfully test black-hole accretion disk models.
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201117385 fatcat:6qz3x5grenaczi4u6momvs7upa