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Hot accretion disks and. gamma. -ray cosmic sources

Conference · · AIP Conf. Proc.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6095283
Hot accretion disks around rotating black holes produce copious amounts of X-rays, ..gamma..-rays and e/sup +/e/sup -/ pairs. These Comptonized models with an energy flux spectral index of the X-ray spectrum approx. 1 are optically thick to ..gamma gamma.. pair production. The resultant high energy spectrum steepens above a few MeV. The few ..gamma..-ray spectra of active galactic nuclei that are available show this steepening as well as the ..gamma..-ray diffuse background. The same processes that take place in a hot accretion disk around a supermassive black hole at the center of an active nucleus also operate in a hot accretion disk around a stellar mass black hole. The implications for the two galactic sources Cygnus X-1 and particularly the positron source at the galactic nucleus are examined. 19 references, 2 figures.
Research Organization:
George Mason Univ., Fairfax, VA
OSTI ID:
6095283
Report Number(s):
CONF-830136-
Conference Information:
Journal Name: AIP Conf. Proc.; (United States) Journal Volume: 101
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English