Eclipsing Light-Curve Asymmetry for Black-Hole Accretion Flows

Abstract

We propose an eclipsing light-curve diagnosis for black-hole accretion flows. When emission from an inner accretion disk around a black hole is occulted by a companion star, the observed light curve becomes asymmetric at ingress and egress on a time scale of 0.1-1 seconds. This light-curve analysis provides a means of verifying the relativistic properties of the accretion flow, based on the special/general relativistic effects of black holes. The ``skewness'' for the eclipsing light curve of a thin disk is $\sim 0.08$, whereas that of a slim disk is $\sim 0$, since the innermost part is self-occulted by the disk's outer rim.