Geometry of the inner accretion flow around stellar-mass black holes

Characterize the geometry of the inner accretion flow around stellar-mass black holes, including how it governs the energy output, variability, and jet activity of these systems.

Background

The paper identifies the geometry of the inner accretion flow as a fundamental unresolved issue in high-energy astrophysics. This geometry is directly relevant to the production of radiation, the observed X-ray variability, and jet activity in black-hole X-ray binaries.

The study investigates a rapid type-C QPO disappearance in Swift J151857.0–572147 as an observational probe of changes in the inner accretion geometry. Although the analysis constrains the evolution of the corona and disk across the transition, it does not provide a complete characterization of the underlying geometry.