The Analogous Structure of Accretion Flows in Supermassive and Stellar Mass Black Holes: New Insights from Faded Changing-look Quasars

Despite their factor of similar to 10(8) difference in black hole mass, several lines of evidence suggest possible similarities between black hole accretion flows in active galactic nuclei (AGN) and Galactic X-ray binaries. However, it is still unclear whether the geometry of the disk-corona system in X-ray binaries directly scales up to AGN and whether this analogy still holds in different accretion states. We test this AGN/X-ray binary analogy by comparing the observed correlations between the UV-to-X-ray spectral index (alpha(OX)) and Eddington ratio in AGN to those predicted from observations of X-ray binary outbursts. This approach probes the geometry of their disk-corona systems as they transition between different accretion states. We use new Chandra X-ray and ground-based rest-UV observations of faded "changing-look" quasars to extend this comparison to lower Eddington ratios of <10(-2), where observations of X-ray binaries predict a softening of alpha(OX) in AGN. We find that the observed correlations between the alpha(OX) and Eddington ratio of AGN displays a remarkable similarity to accretion state transitions in prototypical X-ray binary outbursts, including an inversion of this correlation at a critical Eddington ratio of similar to 10(-2). Our results suggest that the structures of black hole accretion flows directly scale across a factor of similar to 10(8) in black hole mass and across different accretion states, enabling us to apply theoretical models of X-ray binaries to explain AGN phenomenology.