If you have suggestions for additional topics for discussion please forward them to us.
In these working sessions, there are no contributed talks per se. However, if you wish to prepare a few view graphs/short presentation to promote discussion we would appreciate your input. Please indicate if you will be attending this session.
Thank you for your interest and efforts.
Sincerely,
Richard Mushotzky and Ronald Taam
mushotzky@lheavx.gsfc.nasa.gov
taam@apollo.astro.nwu.edu
Theoretical Issues I. Disk Variability 1. Structural changes in the disk - associated with changes in the optically thick, coronal, advection dominated components 2. Instabilities - magnetic, thermal, viscous, pulsational, radiation feedback 3. Winds or Jets - radiation, magnetically, and shock driven II. Steadiness of the disk 1. Mass inflow rate as a function of radius/and height 2. Effect of an inner corona or a corona overlying an optically thick disk on the overall disk structure The theoretical questions that we wish to address include, 1. What is the effective viscosity? 2. How does one determine the transition radius separating the geometrically thin flow from the geometrically thick flows? 3. What type of accretion and wind flows are possible? 4. What is the effect of a corona or of a wind on the existence of global instabilities? 5. How does one model phenomenon occurring on a timescale shorter than the timescale over which the global viscosity acts? 6. Does the mass supply and mass and spin of the black hole specify the state of the disk or is history of the disk important as well? Observational issues Accretion I Massive Black Holes A. Direct Evidence for accretion Is there any? how to proceed (e.g. what observations can be performed to provide direct evidence for accretion?) B. do the present observations place any constraints on models/geometry of accretion ? (disks, ADAFs etc etc) C. Is the x-ray Fe spectral line evidence of matter at r<20R(s) robust, and what does it tell us about accretion rates D. Is the maser data useful for estimating accretion rates E. Do we know anything about the origin of the accreted gas (stars, ISM, etc etc)? F. Do the broad optical and UV lines (BLR) dynamics provide usable information? Galactic mass black holes A. Do the XTE data measure (infer?) the rate/form of accretion -do we have any direct measures ? B. Is there evidence for correlation of accretion rate with other properties (spectral/temporal) C. For the superluminal sources what is the distribution of energy release between photons, relativistic particles and bulk motion? Is there direct evidence for extraction of spin energy? D. What is the relationship between luminosity and accretion E. What is the meaing of the cross-spectrum and time variablity signatures Galactic center Does the inferred measurement of accretion of gas at large radii place strong constraints on models. ? Is the galactic center a good model for the many other extragalactic low luminosity/large mass galactic nuclei? What are the present set of observations that define this class of objects and how are they related to accretion physics? II Ejection Massive Black holes A. Can we estimate the mass ejection rates and the required total energies from the present data? B. what are the scales involved in ejection - e.g. where does the material and the energy originate? C. what is the driving force behind the ejection (magnetic, radiative, etc etc) %The above (C.) should be in the theory section - we can move it there. % ok D. What is the relative importance and relationship of jets and winds. E. Are the broad absorption lines (BALS) important in the overall mass flux? Galactic Black holes A Is there evidence for ejection in the non-superluminal sources? B. what is the observational connection between accretion/disk(?) processes and jets (? Galactic center(s) for our Milky way and other "quiescent" MBHs is there evidence for ejection?