Effects of Dissipation Physics on High-frequency Quasiperiodic Oscillations in Black Hole X-Ray Binaries

Abstract We numerically investigate the effects of black hole spin and local dissipation profiles on high-frequency quasiperiodic oscillation (HFQPO) observed in black hole X-ray binaries (BHXBs). Our HFQPO power spectra arise from self-consistent calculations that do not rely on ad hoc assumptions regarding disk geometry. Our models combine radiative transfer and disk vertical structure equations with input motivated by first-principles three-dimensional simulations. We found that HFQPO power spectra may be sensitive to the spatial distribution of dissipation rates, while the quality factors are more sensitive to black hole spin. We discuss the observational implications of our results in the context of steep power-law spectra from BHXBs that are seen together with HFQPOs, and how quasiperiodic oscillation properties may be indicators of the underlying physical oscillations.