2008/04/30 by J. Goodman, D. Uzdensky · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Accretion disc #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Corona (planetary geology) #Inverse #Magnetic field #Magnetic reconnection #Magnetohydrodynamics #Plasma #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Spectral line #astro-ph #physics.plasm-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/592345
Revised in response to referee. Accepted ApJ. 11 pp., no figures. Uses aastex 5.02
arxiv created 2008/09/25 · openalex publication_date 2008/11/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We point out that a conventional construction placed on observations of accreting black holes, in which their nonthermal X-ray spectra are produced by inverse Comptonization in a coronal plasma, suggests that the plasma is marginally collisionless. Recent developments in plasma physics indicate that fast reconnection takes place only in collisionless plasmas. As has recently been suggested for the Sun's corona, such marginal states may result from a combination of energy balance and the requirements of fast magnetic reconnection.