Super-Eddington accretion in GRS 1915+105

Abstract

Classical modelling suggests that, during the RXTE observations studied, GRS 1915+105 was near or above the critical accretion rate and the optically thick inner disk penetrated inside the advection-dominated flow. The system was very unstable leading to a rich pattern of variability, e.g. the Rings which might be characteristic to disk instabilities very close to the innermost stable orbit (Vilhu and Nevalainen, 1998, ApJ 508, L85). Small values of R_in obtained require a rapidly rotating Kerr hole, unless the central mass is smaller than 2-3 solar masses. A thermal sombrero provides a reasonable modelling of the rings, although the broad-band RXTE/OSSE spectrum analysed seems to require a significant injection of relativistic electrons, the hot phase being not a pure thermal one. Observations below 2 keV and simultaneous broad-band spectra between 2--400 keV are needed to better fix the size of the black body disk and the role of relativistic injection. Further, theoretical work on emerging spectra of Kerr-holes is required to replace the classical model used.