1202.1191 (M. H. Erkut)

On the high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations from black holes    [PDF]

M. H. Erkut

We apply the global mode analysis, which has been recently developed for the
modeling of kHz quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) from neutron stars, to the
inner region of an accretion disk around a rotating black hole. Within a
pseudo-Newtonian approach that keeps the ratio of the radial epicyclic
frequency $\kappa$ to the orbital frequency $\Omega$ the same as the
corresponding ratio for a Kerr black hole we determine the innermost disk
region where the hydrodynamic modes grow in amplitude. We find that the
radiation flux emerging from the inner disk has the highest values within the
same region. Using the flux weighted averages of the frequency bands over this
region we identify the growing modes with highest frequency branches $\Omega
+\kappa $ and $\Omega $ to be the plausible candidates for the high-frequency
QPO pairs observed in black hole systems. The observed frequency ratio around
1.5 can therefore be understood naturally in terms of the global free
oscillations in the innermost region of a viscous accretion disk around a black
hole without invoking a particular resonance to produce black hole QPOs.
Although the frequency ratio $<\Omega +\kappa>/<\Omega>$ is found to be not
sensitive to the black hole's spin which is good for explaining the
high-frequency QPOs it may work as a limited diagnostic of the spin parameter
to distinguish black holes with very large spin from the slowly rotating ones.
Within our model we estimate the frequency ratio of a high-frequency QPO pair
to be greater than 1.5 if the black hole is a slow rotator. For fast rotating
black holes, we expect the same ratio to be less than 1.5.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.1191