A collection of must-read references. These are mostly for X-ray reflection spectroscopy and X-ray binaries.

Why accretion important

The growth of supermassive black holes

King et al. 2003, “Black Holes, Galaxy Formation, and the MBH-σ Relation”
- This result suggests that the central black holes in galaxies gain most of their mass in phases of super-Eddington accretion, which are presumably obscured or at high redshift. Observed super-Eddington quasars are apparently late in growing their black hole masses.
Di Matteo et al. 2005, “Energy input from quasars regulates the growth and activity of black holes and their host galaxies”
Volonteri & Rees. 2005, “Rapid Growth of High-Redshift Black Holes”
- Motivated by the observations of luminous quasars around redshift z~6 with SMBH masses ~109 Msolar, we assess the possibility of an early phase of stable supercritical quasi-spherical accretion in the BHs hosted by metal-free halos with virial temperature Tvir>104 K.
- We find that even a short phase of supercritical accretion eases the requirements set by the z~6 quasars.
Alexander & Hickox. 2012, “What drives the growth of black holes?”
Volonteri 2012, “The Formation and Evolution of Massive Black Holes”

Zdziarski & Gierlinski 2004, “Radiative Processes, Spectral States and Variability of Black-Hole Binaries”
Fenders et al. 2004, “Towards a unified model for black hole X-ray binary jets” (Jet and HID)
Belloni et al, 2005, “The evolution of the timing properties of the black-hole transient GX 339-4 during its 2002/2003 outburst” (HID)
Homan et al. 2005, “The Evolution of Black Hole States”
Remillard & McClintock 2006, “X-Ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries” (Can’t miss this paper!)
Done et al. 2007, “Modelling the behaviour of accretion flows in X-ray binaries. Everything you always wanted to know about accretion but were afraid to ask” (Everything you want to know!)
Done et al. 2010, “Observational characteristics of accretion onto black holes” (A great reference for students)
Dunn et al. 2010, “A global spectral study of black hole X-ray binaries”
Dunn et al. 2011, “A global study of the behaviour of black hole X-ray binary discs”
Fender et al. 2012, “Stellar-Mass Black Holes and Ultraluminous X-ray Sources”

The disk instability

Lasota et al. 2001, “The disc instability model of dwarf novae and low-mass X-ray binary transients”
Coriat et al. 2012, “Revisiting a fundamental test of the disc instability model for X-ray binaries”
Lasota et al. 2015, “X-ray Transients: Hyper- or Hypo-Luminous?”

Fabian et al. 1989, “X-ray fluorescence from the inner disc in Cygnus X-1”
George & Fabian, 1991, “X-ray reflection from cold matter in Active Galactic Nuclei and X-ray binaries”
Laor et al. 1991, “Line Profiles from a Disk around a Rotating Black Hole”
Tanaka et al. 1995, “Gravitationally redshifted emission implying an accretion disk and massive black hole in the active galaxy MCG-6-30-15”
Reynolds 2014, “Measuring Black Hole Spin Using X-Ray Reflection Spectroscopy”
Bambi et al. 2021, “Towards Precision Measurements of Accreting Black Holes Using X-Ray Reflection Spectroscopy” (Very good summary of reflection models and open questions in the field)
Reynolds et al. 2021, “Observational Constraints on Black Hole Spin”

Last editted by Honghui Liu on 2023/07/05

Contact: hhliu19-at-fudan.edu.cn; honghui_astro-at-outlook.com