The quiescent spectrum of neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries typically consists of two components – a thermal component associated with emission from the neutron star surface, and a non-thermal ...power-law component whose origin is not well understood. Spectral fitting of neutron star atmosphere models to the thermal component is one of the leading methods for measuring the neutron star radius. However, it has been known for years that the X-ray spectra of quiescent neutron stars vary between observations. While most quiescent variability is explained through a variable power-law component, the brightest and best-studied object, Cen X-4, requires a change in the thermal component and such thermal variability could be a problem for measuring neutron star radii. In this paper, we significantly increase the number of sources whose quiescent spectra have been studied for variability. We examine nine potential quiescent neutron stars with luminosities ≤1034 erg s−1 over the course of multiple Chandra observations of the globular clusters NGC 6440 and Terzan 5 and find no strong evidence for variability in the effective temperature in seven of the nine sources. Two sources show a potential change in temperature, though this depends on the exact model fitted. CX1 in NGC 6440 is equally well fitted by a variable thermal component or a variable power law. Therefore, the results are inconclusive and we cannot exclude or require thermal variability in that source. CX5 in NGC 6440 shows a potential change in temperature, though this depends on whether a power law is included in the spectral fit or not. This suggests that thermal variability may not be widespread among quiescent neutron stars with luminosities ≤1034 erg s−1, and hence thermal radiation remains a promising means to constraining neutron star radii.
Timing techniques are powerful tools to study dynamical astrophysical phenomena. In the X-ray band, they offer the potential of probing accretion physics down to the event horizon. Recent work has ...used frequency- and energy-dependent time lags as tools for studying relativistic reverberation around the black holes in several Seyfert galaxies. This was achieved due to the evenly sampled light curves obtained using XMM-Newton. Continuously sampled data are, however, not always available and standard Fourier techniques are not applicable. Here, building on the work of Miller et al., we discuss and use a maximum likelihood method to obtain frequency-dependent lags that takes into account light curve gaps. Instead of calculating the lag directly, the method estimates the most likely lag values at a particular frequency given two observed light curves. We use Monte Carlo simulations to assess the method's applicability and use it to obtain lag-energy spectra from Suzaku data for two objects, NGC 4151 and MCG-5-23-16, that had previously shown signatures of iron K reverberation. The lags obtained are consistent with those calculated using standard methods using XMM-Newton data.
ABSTRACT
The structure and composition of the crust of neutron stars plays an important role in their thermal and magnetic evolution, hence in setting their observational properties. One way to study ...the properties of the crust of a neutron star, is to measure how it cools after it has been heated during an accretion outburst in a low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB). Such studies have shown that there is a tantalizing source of heat, of currently unknown origin, that is located in the outer layers of the crust and has a strength that varies between different sources and different outbursts. With the aim of understanding the mechanism behind this ‘shallow heating’, we present Chandra and Swift observations of the neutron star LMXB Aql X-1, obtained after its bright 2016 outburst. We find that the neutron star temperature was initially much lower, and started to decrease at much later time, than observed after the 2013 outburst of the source, despite the fact that the properties of the two outbursts were very similar. Comparing our data to thermal evolution simulations, we infer that the depth and magnitude of shallow heating must have been much larger during the 2016 outburst than during the 2013 one. This implies that basic neutron star parameters that remain unchanged between outbursts do not play a strong role in shallow heating. Furthermore, it suggests that outbursts with a similar accretion morphology can give rise to very different shallow heating. We also discuss alternative explanations for the observed difference in quiescent evolution after the 2016 outburst.
ABSTRACT
We have measured the wavelength-dependent lags between the X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical bands in the high-accretion rate ($L/L_{\rm Edd}\approx 40{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$) active galactic ...nucleus (AGN) Mrk 110 during two intensive monitoring campaigns in February and September 2019. After including the 2017 data published by Vincentelli et al., we divided the observations into three intervals with different X-ray luminosities. The first interval has the lowest X-ray luminosity and did not exhibit the U-band excess positive lag, or the X-ray excess negative lag that is seen in most AGNs. However, these excess lags are seen in the two subsequent intervals of higher X-ray luminosity. Although the data are limited, the excess lags appear to scale with X-ray luminosity. Our modelling shows that lags expected from reprocessing of X-rays by the accretion disc vary hardly at all with increasing luminosity. Therefore, as the U-band excess almost certainly arises from Balmer-continuum emission from the broad-line region (BLR), we attribute these lag changes to changes in the contribution from the BLR. The change is easily explained by the usual increase in the inner radius of the BLR with increasing ionizing luminosity.
We report on X-ray and radio observations of the ultra-compact X-ray binary 4U 1543−624 taken in August 2017 during an enhanced accretion episode. We obtained Neutron Star Interior Composition ...Explorer (NICER) monitoring of the source over a ∼10 day period during which target-of-opportunity observations were also conducted with Swift, INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL), and the Australia Telescope Compact Array. Emission lines were measured in the NICER X-ray spectrum at ∼0.64 keV and ∼6.4 keV that correspond to O and Fe, respectively. By modeling these line components, we are able to track changes in the accretion disk throughout this period. The innermost accretion flow appears to move inwards from hundreds of gravitational radii (Rg = GM/c2) at the beginning of the outburst to <8.7 Rg at peak intensity. We do not detect the source in radio, but are able to place a 3 upper limit on the flux density at 27 Jy beam−1. Comparing the radio and X-ray luminosities, we find that the source lies significantly away from the range typical of black holes in the - plane, suggesting a neutron star primary. This adds to the evidence that neutron stars (NSs) do not follow a single track in the - plane, limiting its use in distinguishing between different classes of NSs based on radio and X-ray observations alone.
The Galactic black hole candidate XTE J1752−223 was observed during the decay of its 2009 outburst with the Suzaku and XMM-Newton observatories. The observed spectra are consistent with the source ...being in the 'intermediate' and 'low-hard' states, respectively. The presence of a strong, relativistic iron emission line is clearly detected in both observations and the line profiles are found to be remarkably consistent and robust to a variety of continuum models. This strongly points to the compact object in XTE J1752−223 being a stellar mass black hole accretor and not a neutron star. Physically motivated and self-consistent reflection models for the Fe Kα emission-line profile and disc reflection spectrum rule out either a non-rotating, Schwarzschild black hole or a maximally rotating, Kerr black hole at greater than 3σ level of confidence. Using a fully relativistic line function in which the black hole spin parameter is a variable, we have formally constrained the spin parameter to be 0.52 ± 0.11(1σ). Furthermore, we show that the source in the low-hard state still requires an optically thick disc component having a luminosity which is consistent with the L∝T
4 relation expected for a thin disc extending down to the innermost stable circular orbit. Our result is in contrast to the prevailing paradigm that the disc is truncated in the low-hard state.
Several X-ray observations have recently revealed the presence of reverberation time delays between spectral components in active galactic nuclei. Most of the observed lags are between the power-law ...Comptonization component, seen directly, and the soft excess produced by reflection in the vicinity of the black hole. NGC 4151 was the first object to show these lags in the iron K band. Here, we report the discovery of reverberation lags in the Fe K band in two other sources: MCG-5-23-16 and NGC 7314. In both objects, the 6-7 keV band, where the Fe K alpha line peaks, lags the bands at lower and higher energies with a time delay of ~1 ks. These lags are unlikely to be due to the narrow Fe K alpha line. They are fully consistent with reverberation of the relativistically broadened iron K alpha line. The measured lags, their time scale, and spectral modeling indicate that most of the radiation is emitted at ~5 and 24 gravitational radii for MCG-5-23-16 and NGC 7314, respectively.
Quiescent emission from the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary Cen X-4 is seen to be variable on time-scales from hundreds of seconds to years, suggesting that at least in this object, low-level ...accretion is important during quiescence. Here, we present results from recent XMM-Newton and Swift observations of Cen X-4, where the X-ray flux (0.5-10 keV) varies by a factor of 6.5 between the brightest and faintest states. We find a positive correlation between the X-ray flux and the simultaneous near-ultraviolet (UV) flux, where as there is no significant correlation between the X-ray and simultaneous optical (V, B) fluxes. This suggests that while the X-ray and UV emitting regions are somehow linked, the optical region originates elsewhere. Comparing the luminosities, it is plausible that the UV emission originates due to reprocessing of the X-ray flux by the accretion disc, with the hot inner region of the disc being a possible location for the UV emitting region. The optical emission, however, could be dominated by the donor star. The X-ray/UV correlation does not favour the accretion stream impact point as the source of the UV emission.
We report on a deep Suzaku observation of the stellar-mass black hole GX 339-4 in outburst. A clear, strong, relativistically shaped iron emission line from the inner accretion disk is observed. The ...broadband disk reflection spectrum revealed is one of the most sensitive yet obtained from an accreting black hole. We fit the Suzaku spectra with a physically motivated disk reflection model, blurred by a new relativistic line function in which the black hole spin parameter is a variable. This procedure yielded a black hole spin parameter of alpha = 0.89 plus or minus 0.04. Joint modeling of these Suzaku spectra and prior XMM-Newton spectra obtained in two different outburst phases yields a spin parameter of alpha = 0.93 plus or minus 0.01. The degree of consistency between these results suggests that disk reflection models allow for spin measurements that are not strongly biased by scattering effects. We suggest that the best value of the black hole spin parameter is alpha = 0.93 plus or minus 0.01 (statistical) plus or minus 0.04 (systematic). Although preliminary, these results represent the first direct measurement of nonzero spin in a stellar-mass black hole using relativistlc line modeling.
High-frequency iron K reverberation lags, where the red wing of the line responds before the line centroid, are a robust signature of relativistic reflection off the inner accretion disc. In this ...Letter, we report the discovery of the Fe K lag in PG 1244+026 from ∼120 ks of data (one orbit of the XMM-Newton telescope). The amplitude of the lag with respect to the continuum is 1000 s at a frequency of ∼10−4 Hz. We also find a possible frequency dependence of the line: as we probe higher frequencies (i.e. shorter time-scales from a smaller emitting region) the Fe K lag peaks at the red wing of the line, while at lower frequencies (from a larger emitting region) we see the dominant reflection lag from the rest-frame line centroid. The mean energy spectrum shows a strong soft excess, though interestingly, there is no indication of a soft lag. Given that this source has radio emission and it has little reported correlated variability between the soft excess and the hard band, we explore one possible explanation in which the soft excess in this source is dominated by the steep power-law-like emission from a jet, and that a corona (or base of the jet) irradiates the inner accretion disc, creating the blurred reflection features evident in the spectrum and the lag. General relativistic ray-tracing models fit the Fe K lag well, with the best fit giving a compact X-ray source at a height of 5r
g and a black hole mass of 1.3 × 107 M.
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