The lifecycle of black holes in X-ray binaries involves continuous or intermittent episodes of consumption and ejection of surrounding plasma. On its way to the compact object, the matter actively flickers, and we observe an appearing blinking source of infrared, optical, ultraviolet and X-ray emission. The physical processes leading to excitation of such variability, along with the immediate geometry of the sources are debated. Complexity of the problem is added as the self-organisation of matter is closely connected to the radiation it produces, leading to a non-linearity of the problem. During the project, the team will develop new techniques to study the behaviour of this matter starting from plasma scales to the observed properties.

2023

2027