Black Hole Binaries in Quiescence

Charles D. Bailyn

Published 2016-10-30Version 1

I discuss some of what is known and unknown about the behavior of black hole binary systems in the quiescent accretion state. Quiescence is important for several reasons: 1) the dominance of the companion star in the optical and IR wavelengths allows the binary parameters to be robustly determined - as an example, we argue that the longer proposed distance to the X-ray source GRO J1655-40 is correct; 2) quiescence represents the limiting case of an extremely low accretion rate, in which both accretion and jets can be observed; 3) understanding the evolution and duration of the quiescent state is a key factor in determining the overall demographics of X-rary binaries, which has taken on a new importance in the era of gravitational wave astronomy.