Accretion Disk Oscillations and QPOs in Black Hole X-ray Binaries

Abstract

The observed quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in low-mass X-ray binaries have been suggested to be probably related to the characteristic oscillation modes in the inner part of a relativistic accretion disk. Here we study the non-damping oscillation modes in the disk by considering the local perturbations and viscosity effects. We find that the trapped oscillations are amplified significantly when the viscosity parameter increases and the trapped size varies when the radial wavenumber and Mach number change. Our results support that the hundred-hertz QPOs and their low fractional rms amplitudes found in some black hole X-ray binaries may be explained by the trapped non-damping oscillation modes in the inner part of an accretion disk around a rapidly rotating black hole.