Black Holes: Timing and Spectral Properties and Evolution

Kalemci, Emrah; Kara, Erin; Tomsick, John A.

doi:10.1007/978-981-16-4544-0_100-1

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 184 publications

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“…Then they make a rapid state transition, usually on a timescale of days to weeks (through what is known as the intermediate state), into the soft state, where the disk emission dominates. Finally, they come back to the hard state and then recede again into quiescence (see, e.g., Belloni et al 2011 andKalemci et al 2022 for a recent review). Standard BHXBs show lowfrequency quasiperiodic oscillations (LFQPOs; see the review Ingram & Motta 2019 and references therein) in their power spectra.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The 2022 Outburst of IGR J17091–3624: Connecting the Exotic GRS 1915+105 to Standard Black Hole X-Ray Binaries

Wang,

Kara,

García

et al. 2024

ApJ

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While the standard X-ray variability of black hole X-ray binaries (BHXBs) is stochastic and noisy, there are two known BHXBs that exhibit exotic “heartbeat”-like variability in their lightcurves: GRS 1915+105 and IGR J17091–3624. In 2022, IGR J17091–3624 went into outburst for the first time in the NICER/NuSTAR era. These exquisite data allow us to simultaneously track the exotic variability and the corresponding spectral features with unprecedented detail. We find that as in typical BHXBs, the outburst began in the hard state, then continued in the intermediate state, but then transitioned to an exotic soft state, where we identify two types of heartbeat-like variability (Class V and a new Class X). The flux energy spectra show a broad iron emission line due to relativistic reflection when there is no exotic variability, and absorption features from highly ionized iron when the source exhibits exotic variability. Whether absorption lines from highly ionized iron are detected in IGR J17091–3624 is not determined by the spectral state alone, but rather is determined by the presence of exotic variability; in a soft spectral state, absorption lines are only detected along with exotic variability. Our finding indicates that IGR J17091–3624 can be seen as a bridge between the most peculiar BHXB GRS 1915+105 and “normal” BHXBs, because it alternates between the conventional and exotic behaviors of BHXBs. We discuss the physical nature of the absorbing material and exotic variability in light of this new legacy data set.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The 2022 Outburst of IGR J17091–3624: Connecting the Exotic GRS 1915+105 to Standard Black Hole X-Ray Binaries

Wang,

Kara,

García

et al. 2024

ApJ

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“…Black hole X-ray binaries (BHXBs) provide us with opportunities to study different accretion states of accreting black holes in a single source (see, e.g., Méndez & van der Klis 1997;Remillard & McClintock 2006;Belloni et al 2011, andKalemci et al 2022 for a recent review). In a typical outburst, the BHXBs rise from quiescence through a hard state where the X-ray emission is dominated by emission from the "corona" (the hot plasma with temperature in the order of 100 keV).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Highly Coherent Quasiperiodic Oscillations in the “Heartbeat” Black Hole X-Ray Binary IGR J17091–3624

Wang,

Kara,

Homan

et al. 2024

ApJ

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IGR J17091–3624 is a black hole X-ray binary (BHXB), often referred to as the “twin” of GRS 1915+105 because it is the only other known BHXB that can show exotic “heartbeat”-like variability that is highly structured and repeated. Here, we report on observations of IGR J17091–3624 from its 2022 outburst, where we detect an unusually coherent quasiperiodic oscillation (QPO) when the broadband variability is low (total fractional rms ≲6%) and the spectrum is dominated by the accretion disk. Such spectral and variability behavior is characteristic of the soft state of typical BHXBs (i.e., those that do not show heartbeats), but we also find that this QPO is strongest when there is some exotic heartbeat-like variability (so-called Class V variability). This QPO is detected at frequencies between 5 and 8 Hz and has Q factors (defined as the QPO frequency divided by the width) ≳50, making it one of the most highly coherent low-frequency QPOs ever seen in a BHXB. The extremely high Q factor makes this QPO distinct from typical low-frequency QPOs that are conventionally classified into type-A/B/C QPOs. Instead, we find evidence that archival observations of GRS 1915+105 also showed a similarly high-coherence QPO in the same frequency range, suggesting that this unusually coherent and strong QPO may be unique to BHXBs that can exhibit “heartbeat”-like variability.

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“…Spectral states are classified by two parameters (e.g., Kalemci et al 2022). The first parameter is the luminosity with respect to the Eddington limit (L Edd = 4πGM Bh c/κ es ∼ 1.3 × 10 38 M Bh / M e erg s −1 , where κ es is the opacity due to electron scattering), which represents the point at which radiation pressure overcomes gravity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetic Flux Plays an Important Role during a Black Hole X-Ray Binary Outburst in Radiative Two-temperature General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations

Liska,

Kaaz,

Chatterjee

et al. 2024

ApJ

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Black hole (Bh) X-ray binaries cycle through different spectral states of accretion over the course of months to years. Although persistent changes in the Bh mass accretion rate are generally recognized as the most important component of state transitions, it is becoming increasingly evident that magnetic fields play a similarly important role. In this article, we present the first radiative two-temperature general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations in which an accretion disk transitions from a quiescent state at an accretion rate of M ̇ ∼ 10 − 10 M ̇ Edd to a hard-intermediate state at an accretion rate of M ̇ ∼ 10 − 2 M ̇ Edd . This huge parameter space in mass accretion rate is bridged by artificially rescaling the gas density scale of the simulations. We present two jetted BH models with varying degrees of magnetic flux saturation. We demonstrate that in “standard and normal evolution” models, which are unsaturated with magnetic flux, the hot torus collapses into a thin and cold accretion disk when M ̇ ≳ 5 × 10 − 3 M ̇ Edd . On the other hand, in “magnetically arrested disk” models, which are fully saturated with vertical magnetic flux, the plasma remains mostly hot with substructures that condense into cold clumps of gas when M ̇ ≳ 1 × 10 − 2 M ̇ Edd . This suggests that the spectral signatures observed during state transitions are closely tied to the level of magnetic flux saturation.

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Black Holes: Timing and Spectral Properties and Evolution

Cited by 6 publications

References 184 publications

The 2022 Outburst of IGR J17091–3624: Connecting the Exotic GRS 1915+105 to Standard Black Hole X-Ray Binaries

The 2022 Outburst of IGR J17091–3624: Connecting the Exotic GRS 1915+105 to Standard Black Hole X-Ray Binaries

Highly Coherent Quasiperiodic Oscillations in the “Heartbeat” Black Hole X-Ray Binary IGR J17091–3624

Magnetic Flux Plays an Important Role during a Black Hole X-Ray Binary Outburst in Radiative Two-temperature General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations

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