Effects of Strong Photospheric Dissipation on the Spectra and Structure of Accretion Disks with Nonzero Inner Torque

Abstract

Abstract We present numerical calculations of spectra and structure of accretion disk models appropriate for near-Eddington luminosity black hole X-ray binaries. Our work incorporates nonzero torque at the ISCO as well as several dissipation profiles based on first-principles three-dimensional disk interior simulations. We found that significant dissipation near the photosphere can produce steep power-law-like spectra for models with moderate viewing angles spanning a range of black hole spins while including inner torque pushes the spectral peak to higher energies. Consistent with previous studies, we also conclude that disks with stresses at the inner edge remain viable models for high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations, especially given that increasing dissipation near the photospheres actually resulted in QPO power spectra with higher quality factors compared to those found in recent work.