Speaker Name:
Prof Phil Charles
Speaker Affiliation:
SAAO
Talk Subject:
Black-Hole X-ray Binaries
Date:
03/10/2005 - 14:00
The soft X-ray transients (SXTs, or "X-ray Novae") have provided the most secure evidence yet for the existence of compact objects with masses subtantially in excess of 6 solar masses and are therefore presumed to be black holes. SXTs are short-period (5hrs -- 6days) binaries with, usually, K to M type companions. They undergo rare, dramatic X-ray outbursts (with recurrence times usually of decades), reaching luminosities of 10$^{38}$erg~s$^{-1}$ and more, that are almost certainly a result of accretion disc instability events. While at least 4 are neutron star systems, most are strong black-hole candidates.