A shared accretion instability for black holes and neutron stars
A shared accretion instability for black holes and neutron stars
Accretion disks around compact objects are expected to enter an unstable phase at high luminosity. One instability may occur when the radiation pressure generated by accretion modifies the disk viscosity, resulting in the cyclic depletion and refilling of the inner disk on short timescales. Such a scenario, however, has only been quantitatively verified for a single stellar-mass black hole. Although there are hints of these cycles in a few isolated cases, their apparent absence in the variable emission of most bright accreting neutron stars and black holes has been a lingering puzzle. Here we report the presence of the same multiwavelength instability around an accreting neutron star. Moreover, we show that the variability across the electromagnetic spectrum-from radio to X-ray-of both black holes and neutron stars at high accretion rates can be explained consistently if the accretion disks are unstable, producing relativistic ejections during transitions that deplete or refill the inner disk. Such new association allows us to identify the main physical components responsible for the fast multiwavelength variability of highly accreting compact objects.
astro-ph.HE
45-49
Vincentelli, F.M.
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Neilsen, J.
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Tetarenko, A. J.
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Cavecchi, Y.
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Segura, N. Castro
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Palacio, S. del
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Eijnden, J. van den
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Vasilopoulos, G.
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Altamirano, D.
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Padilla, M. Armas
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Bailyn, C.D.
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Belloni, T.
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Buisson, D.J.K.
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Cuneo, V.A.
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Degenaar, N.
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Knigge, C.
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Long, K. S.
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Jimenez-Ibarra, F.
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Milburn, J.
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Darias, T. Muñoz
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Remillard, R.
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Russell, T.
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1 March 2023
Vincentelli, F.M.
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Neilsen, J.
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Tetarenko, A. J.
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Cavecchi, Y.
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Segura, N. Castro
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Palacio, S. del
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Eijnden, J. van den
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Vasilopoulos, G.
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Altamirano, D.
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Padilla, M. Armas
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Bailyn, C.D.
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Belloni, T.
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Buisson, D.J.K.
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Cuneo, V.A.
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Degenaar, N.
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Knigge, C.
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Long, K. S.
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Jimenez-Ibarra, F.
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Milburn, J.
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Darias, T. Muñoz
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Remillard, R.
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Russell, T.
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Vincentelli, F.M., Neilsen, J., Tetarenko, A. J., Cavecchi, Y., Segura, N. Castro, Palacio, S. del, Eijnden, J. van den, Vasilopoulos, G., Altamirano, D., Padilla, M. Armas, Bailyn, C.D., Belloni, T., Buisson, D.J.K., Cuneo, V.A., Degenaar, N., Knigge, C., Long, K. S., Jimenez-Ibarra, F., Milburn, J., Darias, T. Muñoz, Arabaci, M. Ozbey, Remillard, R. and Russell, T.
(2023)
A shared accretion instability for black holes and neutron stars.
Nature, 615 (7950), .
(doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05648-3).
Abstract
Accretion disks around compact objects are expected to enter an unstable phase at high luminosity. One instability may occur when the radiation pressure generated by accretion modifies the disk viscosity, resulting in the cyclic depletion and refilling of the inner disk on short timescales. Such a scenario, however, has only been quantitatively verified for a single stellar-mass black hole. Although there are hints of these cycles in a few isolated cases, their apparent absence in the variable emission of most bright accreting neutron stars and black holes has been a lingering puzzle. Here we report the presence of the same multiwavelength instability around an accreting neutron star. Moreover, we show that the variability across the electromagnetic spectrum-from radio to X-ray-of both black holes and neutron stars at high accretion rates can be explained consistently if the accretion disks are unstable, producing relativistic ejections during transitions that deplete or refill the inner disk. Such new association allows us to identify the main physical components responsible for the fast multiwavelength variability of highly accreting compact objects.
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2303.00020v1
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Accepted/In Press date: 12 December 2022
Published date: 1 March 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
F.M.V. thanks R. Arcodia, P. Casella, G. Marcel, G. Mastroserio, N. Scepi and L. Stella for insightful discussions. The interpretation of the results benefited from discussions held during the meeting ‘Looking at the disc-jet coupling from different angles’ at the International Space Science Institute in Bern, Switzerland. F.M.V. was supported by the NASA awards 80NSSC19K1456, 80NSSC21K0526 and from grant FJC2020-043334-I financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and NextGenerationEU/PRTR. J.N. acknowledges support by the SAO award GO1-22036X. A.J.T. is a NASA Einstein Fellow and acknowledges support for this work provided by NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant no. HST-HF2-51494.001 awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. for NASA, under contract NAS5-26555. D.A. and N.C.S. acknowledge support from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) grant ST/V001000/1. F.M.V., M.A.P. and V.A.C. acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation research project PID2020-120323GB-I00. M.A.P. acknowledges support from the Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento y Empleo del Gobierno de Canarias and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under grant with reference ProID2021010132 ACCISI/FEDER, UE. T.B. acknowledges financial contribution from the agreement ASI-INAF n.2017-14-H.0 and from PRIN-INAF 2019 N.15. T.M.D. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation project PID2021-124879NB-I00 and the Europa Excelencia grant (EUR2021-122010). T.R. acknowledges the financial contribution from the agreement ASI-INAF n.2017-14-H.0.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
Keywords:
astro-ph.HE
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Local EPrints ID: 476105
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/476105
ISSN: 0028-0836
PURE UUID: d7d0c792-968f-43ea-8c20-c63b61744704
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Date deposited: 12 Apr 2023 14:15
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:34
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Contributors
Author:
F.M. Vincentelli
Author:
J. Neilsen
Author:
A. J. Tetarenko
Author:
Y. Cavecchi
Author:
N. Castro Segura
Author:
S. del Palacio
Author:
J. van den Eijnden
Author:
G. Vasilopoulos
Author:
M. Armas Padilla
Author:
C.D. Bailyn
Author:
T. Belloni
Author:
D.J.K. Buisson
Author:
V.A. Cuneo
Author:
N. Degenaar
Author:
K. S. Long
Author:
F. Jimenez-Ibarra
Author:
J. Milburn
Author:
T. Muñoz Darias
Author:
M. Ozbey Arabaci
Author:
R. Remillard
Author:
T. Russell
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