Formation of optical lines in black-hole binaries

Abstract

The HI Balmer emission lines of black-hole binaries show double-peaked profiles during the high-soft state and the quiescent state. In the high-soft state the profiles are asymmetric with a stronger red peak, but the profiles are symmetric in the quiescent state. We suggest that in the high-soft state the emission lines originate from the temperature-inversion layer caused by irradiative heating of an optically thick accretion disk. Irradiative heating also causes the formation of a disk wind, which mildly absorbs the blue peak of the lines. The double-peaked lines seen in the quiescent state arise from an optically thin disk. In the absence of a disk wind, the lines are unabsorbed and so the symmetry of the line profiles is preserved.