The dim inner accretion disk of the quiescent black hole A0620-00

We observed the X-ray nova A0620-00 with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Faint object Spectrograph 16 yr after its 1975 outburst. We present a single spectrum (1250-4750 A), which is approximately an average over a full 7.8 hr orbital cycle of the source. The continuum can be fitted approximately by a blackbody model with T = 9000 K and a small projected source area, which is approximately 1 % of the expected area of the accretion disk. AS0620-00 is faint in the far-UV band; its luminosity is comparable to the luminosity of the quiescent dwarf-nova accretion disk (i.e., excluding the white dwarf). By analogy with dwarf novae, the optical luminosity of the disk (M(sub nu) approximately = 7) and the orbital period of A0620-00 imply that the rate of mass transfer onto the outer disk in M(sub d) approximately 10(exp -10) solar mass/yr. We also observed A0620-00 with the ROSAT PSPC X-ray detector for 3 x 10(exp 4) s and detected a faint source (5 sigma) at the location of the X-ray nova. For an assumed blackbody spectrum the source temperature and luminosity are approximately 0.16 keV and 6 x 10(exp 30) ergs/s, respectively (d = 1 kpc). This luminosity implies that the rate of mass transfer into the black hole is extraordinarily small: M(sub BH) less than 5 x 10(exp -15) solar mass/yr. The much larger mass transfer rate onto the outer disk, and the UV/X-ray faintness of the inner disk confirm key predictions of the disk instability model for the nova outburst of A0620-00 published by Huang and Wheeler and by Mineshige and Wheeler.