observational overview of state transitions in x-ray binaries

More documents

Recommendations

Info

COLOR EVOLUTION hard soft hardest = power-law cominated (index 1.5) softest = accretion disk dominated (1 keV) GX 339-4 hard hardness = 10.0-20.0 keV / 3.0-5.0 keV The next panel I’m adding shows the evolution of the spectral hardness, which is a simple ratio of count rates in two energy bands, in this case the 10-20 keV and 3.0/5.0 keV. It shows that the outburst starts with the source having a hard spectrum, switching to a soft spectrum, and at the end back to a hard spectrum. In this case the hardest spectra correspond to power-law dominated spectra, with an index of around 1.5, while the softest ones are accretion disk dominated, with a typical temperature of 1 keV. Note that the behavior seen in other black hole transients is mostly consistent with this, i.e. going from hard to soft and back to hard. By combining these two curves into a hardness-intensity diagram, we can see how this spectral evolution occurs as a function of the overall intensity level.
COLOR EVOLUTION hardness-intensity diagram (HID) Here is the HID that is the result of combining the light and hardness curves I just showed. The HID is a diagnostic plot that is used extensively in interpreting the X-ray evolution of black hole and neutron star Xray binaries. As a function of time, GX 339-4 traces out a q-shaped track during its bright outbursts. The branches that are shown correspond to different spectral states or transitions between them.
Page 1 and 2: !""#$%&'()*#'"$++$+)&(),-#!.+/ 4566
Page 3 and 4: MORE BACKGROUND • 1996>: Dedicate
Page 5 and 6: TRANSIENT SOURCES • Relation betw
Page 7 and 8: OUTBURST LIGHT CURVES 4U 1543-47 GR
Page 9 and 10: ENERGY DEPENDENCE This movie (Homan
Page 11: SPECTRAL EVOLUTION GX 339-4 First I
Page 15 and 16: Luminosity (erg/s) SPECTRAL EVOLUTI
Page 17 and 18: XTE J1752-223 XTE J1908+094 SPECTRA
Page 19 and 20: SPECTRAL EVOLUTION GRO J1655-40 I
Page 21 and 22: SPECTRAL EVOLUTION GRO J1655-40 We
Page 23 and 24: SPECTRAL EVOLUTION GX 339-4 Transit
Page 25 and 26: IMPLICATIONS FOR ACCRETION • outb
Page 27 and 28: STATE CLASSIFICATION • Various cl
Page 29 and 30: RAPID X-RAY VARIABILITY • power d
Page 31 and 32: • low-luminosity version of the h
Page 33 and 34: INTERMEDIATE STATE Intermediate (tr
Page 35 and 36: RAPID X-RAY VARIABILITY Okay, let
Page 37 and 38: Power type-B frequency up 1 10 100
Page 39 and 40: No Compact Jet (interaction with IS
Page 41 and 42: GRO J1655-40 weak abs. lines weak e
Page 43 and 44: Aql X-1 NEUTRON STARS hard - soft -
Page 45 and 46: Aql X-1 Back to the HID again. NEUT
Page 47 and 48: hard transitional Lin et al. 2009 H
Page 49 and 50: Lin et al. 2009 Homan et al. 2010 N

observational overview of state transitions in x-ray binaries

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?