The X-ray binary GX 339–4/V821 Ara: the distance, inclination, evolutionary status, and mass transfer

Zdziarski, A. A.; Ziółkowski, J.; Mikołajewska, Joanna

doi:10.1093/mnras/stz1787

Cited by 42 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…GX 339-4 is an archetypal BHXB, whose first outburst was reported in 1973, and has been extensively studied since its discovery (e.g., Markert et al 1973;Makishima et al 1986;Méndez & van der Klis 1997;Corbel et al 2003;Hynes et al 2003;Gallo et al 2004;Belloni et al 2005;Plant et al 2015). It is known to be a part of a binary system located at a distance (d) of 5 kpc < d < 15 kpc (Hynes et al 2004;Parker et al 2016), with an orbital period of ∼ 1.7 days (Hynes et al 2003), and whose inclination is not well known (Cowley et al 2002;Zdziarski et al 2019). A relatively recent dynamical study of the binary by Heida et al (2017) has placed a constraint on the mass of GX 339-4 between 2.3M − 9.5M .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of the Accretion Disk–Corona during the Bright Hard-to-soft State Transition: A Reflection Spectroscopic Study with GX 339–4

Sridhar

García

Steiner

et al. 2020

ApJ

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We present the analysis of several observations of the black hole binary GX 339-4 during its bright intermediate states from two different outbursts (2002 and 2004), as observed by RXTE/PCA. We perform a consistent study of its reflection spectrum by employing the relxill family of relativistic reflection models to probe the evolutionary properties of the accretion disk including the inner disk radius (R in ), ionization parameter (ξ), temperatures of the inner disk (T in ), corona (kT e ), and its optical depth (τ ). Our analysis indicates that the disk inner edge approaches the inner-most stable circular orbit (ISCO) during the early onset of bright hard state, and that the truncation radius of the disk remains low (< 9R g ) throughout the transition from hard to soft state. This suggests that the changes observed in the accretion disk properties during the state transition are driven by variation in accretion rate, and not necessarily due to changes in the inner disk's radius. We compare the aforementioned disk properties in two different outbursts with state transitions occurring at dissimilar luminosities, and find identical evolutionary trends in the disk properties, with differences only seen in corona's kT e and τ . We also perform an analysis by employing a self-consistent Comptonized accretion disk model accounting for the scatter of disk photons by the corona, and measure low inner disk truncation radius across the bright intermediate states, using the temperature dependent values of spectral hardening factor, thereby independently confirming our results from the reflection spectrum analysis.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of the Accretion Disk–Corona during the Bright Hard-to-soft State Transition: A Reflection Spectroscopic Study with GX 339–4

Sridhar

García

Steiner

et al. 2020

ApJ

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“…GX 339-4 is a Galactic XRB with a low mass companion (∼1M ) orbiting a central black hole with mass ≥5.8M (Hynes et al 2004), with an orbital period of 42 hours, located at a distance of 8 -12 kpc (Zdziarski et al 2019). GX 339-4 is one of the best studied black hole X-ray transients, having been observed in the radio and X-rays during several different outbursts over more than 40 years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radio and X-ray detections of GX 339–4 in quiescence using MeerKAT and Swift

Tremou

Corbel

Fender

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

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The radio:X-ray correlation that characterizes accreting black holes at all mass scales -from stellar mass black holes in binary systems to super-massive black holes powering Active Galactic Nuclei -is one of the most important pieces of observational evidence supporting the existence of a connection between the accretion process and the generation of collimated outflows -or jets -in accreting systems. Although recent studies suggest that the correlation extends down to low luminosities, only a handful of stellar mass black holes have been clearly detected, and in general only upper limits (especially at radio wavelengths) can be obtained during quiescence. We recently obtained detections of the black hole X-ray binary GX 339-4 in quiescence using the MeerKAT radio telescope and Swift X-ray Telescope instrument on board the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, probing the lower end of the radio:X-ray correlation. We present the properties of accretion and of the connected generation of jets in the poorly studied low-accretion rate regime for this canonical black hole XRB system.

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“…where N 23 is the column density in units of 10 23 cm −2 , n 12 is the hydrogen density in units of 10 12 cm −3 , and T 5 is the temperature of the cold gas in units of 10 5 K . Assuming a maximal extension of the disk wind on the order of the binary separation in GX 339-4, that is ∼10 12 cm (Zdziarski et al 2004(Zdziarski et al , 2019, and an optically thin wind, t migr is shorter than a day. Thus the migration can easily occur between two RXTE pointings (generally separated by 1 day).…”

Section: From Soft-to-hardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expected evolution of disk wind properties along an X-ray binary outburst

Petrucci

Bianchi

Ponti

et al. 2021

A&A

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Blueshifted X-ray absorption lines (preferentially from Fe XXV and Fe XXVI present in the 6–8 keV range) indicating the presence of massive hot disk winds in black hole (BH) X-ray binaries (XrB) are most generally observed during soft states. It has been recently suggested that the nondetection of such hot wind signatures in hard states could be due to the thermal instability of the wind in the ionization domain consistent with Fe XXV and Fe XXVI. Studying the wind thermal stability does require, however, a very good knowledge of the spectral shape of the ionizing spectral energy distribution (SED). In this paper, we discuss the expected evolution of the disk wind properties during an entire outburst by using the RXTE observations of GX 339-4 during its 2010–2011 outburst. While GX 339-4 never showed signatures of a hot wind in the X-rays, the dataset used is optimal for the analysis shown in this study. We computed the corresponding stability curves of the wind using the SED obtained with the jet-emitting disk model. We show that the disk wind can transit from stable to unstable states for Fe XXV and Fe XXVI ions on a day timescale. While the absence of wind absorption features in hard states could be explained by this instability, their presence in soft states seems to require changes in the wind properties (e.g., density) during the spectral transitions between hard and soft states. We propose that these changes could be partly due to the variation of the heating power release at the accretion disk surface through irradiation by the central X-ray source. The evolution of the disk wind properties discussed in this paper could be confirmed through the daily monitoring of the spectral transition of a high-inclination BH XrB.

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The X-ray binary GX 339–4/V821 Ara: the distance, inclination, evolutionary status, and mass transfer

Cited by 42 publications

References 70 publications

Evolution of the Accretion Disk–Corona during the Bright Hard-to-soft State Transition: A Reflection Spectroscopic Study with GX 339–4

Evolution of the Accretion Disk–Corona during the Bright Hard-to-soft State Transition: A Reflection Spectroscopic Study with GX 339–4

Radio and X-ray detections of GX 339–4 in quiescence using MeerKAT and Swift

Expected evolution of disk wind properties along an X-ray binary outburst

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