Black hole accretion discs: reality confronts theory

Abstract

Disc spectra from highly luminous black hole binaries are observed to be rather simple, despite theoretical predictions to the contrary. We collate the disc-dominated spectra from multiple observations of 10 separate sources, and show that these overwhelmingly follow a multi-temperature disc blackbody spectrum with luminosity proportional to T^4, and that such discs are stable. These results are in conflict with standard Shakura-Sunyaev alpha-discs predictions, including proposed modifications such as additional energy loss in a jet, wind or corona. Accretion disc spectra can be useful, reliable guides to the disc structure, and should be used to test the next generation of accretion disc models, in which the disc viscosity is calculated self-consistently from the magnetically generated turbulent dynamo.