Accretion States and Feedback

Start Date
End Date
An RAS Specialist Discussion Meeting organised by Rob Fender (Oxford)*, Steve Balbus (Oxford), Chris Done (Durham), Christian Knigge (Southampton)*Contact: rob.fender AT astro.ox.ac.uk Distinct accretion "states", distinguished by their spectral and temporal properties, which in turn reflect the geometry, optical depth and radiative efficiency of the accretion flows, have been clearly identified in white dwarfs, stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars. These states have been clearly linked to modes of kinetic and radiative feedback in complex but repeatable ways. They have also probably beenidentified in supermassive black holes, and understanding the duration and luminosity of a state in any given time period may be the key to understanding feedback from AGN over cosmological time. In this meeting we will summarize and discuss the state of the art in our empirical understanding of these accretion states and associated feedback, and some of the underlying theories for their origin. http://4pisky.org/ras2015-accretion-states/