Black Hole X-ray Transients

Abstract

The observations and theory of the exciting new class of galactic black hole X-ray transients is reviewed. Seven of these systems have measured mass functions or mass estimates in excess of stable neutron stars, making them excellent black hole candidates. Two of them have revealed ``superluminal" radio jets. Study of the hard and soft radiation from these sources has given tight constraints on the physics of the viscosity of the accretion disk and promises firm proof that these systems contain black holes. This will allow us to search for black holes of more moderate mass and apply the knowledge of these systems to suspected supermassive black holes in AGN's. The most plausible mechanism for triggering the outburst of black hole candidate X-ray transients is the ionization thermal instability. The disk instability models can give the deduced mass flow in quiescence, but not the X-ray spectrum. Advection models that can account for the quiescent X-ray spectrum are difficult to match with the non-steady state, quiescent Keplerian disks. Self-irradiation of the disk in outburst may not lead to X-ray reprocessing as the dominant source of optical light, but may play a role in the ``reflare." The hard power-law spectrum and radio bursts may be non-thermal processes driven by the flow of pair--rich plasma from the disk at early times and due to the formation of a pair--rich plasma corona at late times. The repeated outbursts in systems like GRO J0422+32 suggest some sort of clock, but it is unlikely that it has anything to do with a simple X-ray heating of the companion star. These systems typically have low mass secondaries and their evolutionary origin is still mysterious.