Monte Carlo Simulations of the Thermal Comptonization Process in a Two-Component Accretion Flow around a Black Hole

International audienceWe compute the effects of thermal Comptonization of soft photons emitted from a Keplerian disk around a black hole by the postshock region of a sub-Keplerian flow, known as the CENtrifugal-pressure-dominated BOundary Layer (CENBOL). We show that the spectral state transitions of black hole candidates could be explained either by varying the outer boundary of the CENBOL, which also happens to be the inner edge of the Keplerian disk, or by changing the central density of the CENBOL, which is governed by the rate of the sub-Keplerian flow. We confirm the conclusions of the previous theoretical studies that the interplay between the intensity of the soft photons emitted by the Keplerian flow, the optical depth and electron temperature of the Comptonizing cloud is responsible for the state transitions in a black hole