Spectral states and state preference of galactic X-ray binaries

Using observations in the past four years with the All Sky Monitor (ASM) onboard the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) onboard the Swift, we demonstrate that the hard state and the soft state are the primary spectral states in galactic black hole and neutron star X-ray binaries. In addition, we show quantitatively the preference of the two spectral states for each of the 22 bright persistent sources.

     

Optical observations of Scorpius X-1 in 2008: Evidence of rapid variability

Optical observations of Sco X-1 with exposure times around 0.5 s were performed with the 1.56 m telescope of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in 2008. With these observations, we studied the fluctuation of the optical flux on three short timescales (5, 10, 100 s). We found that the standard deviations of fluctuations on these three timescales differ from those of Gaussian distributions by 7 Sigma, 5 Sigma and 3 Sigma, respectively. The result suggests that the variations in the intensity on these short timescales differ from pure statistical fluctuations, which, we suggest, is due to the intrinsic variability in the optical emission.

     

The correlation timescale of the X-ray flux during the outbursts of soft X-ray transients

Recent studies of black hole and neutron star low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) show a positive correlation between the X-ray flux at which the low/hard(LH)-to-high/soft(HS) state transition occurs and the peak flux of the following HS state. By analyzing the data from the All Sky Monitor (ASM) onboard the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), we show that the HS state flux after the source reaches its HS flux peak still correlates with the transition flux during soft X-ray transient (SXT) outbursts. By studying large outbursts or flares of GX 339-4, Aql X-1 and 4U 1705-44, we have found that the correlation holds up to 250, 40, and 50 d after the LH-to-HS state transition, respectively. These time scales correspond to the viscous time scale in a standard accretion disk around a stellar mass black hole or a neutron star at a radius of ∼10^4–5 R _g, indicating that the mass accretion rates in the accretion flow either correlate over a large range of radii at a given time or correlate over a long period of time at a given radius. If the accretion geometry is a two-flow geometry composed of a sub-Keplerian inflow or outflow and a disk flow in the LH state, the disk flow with a radius up to ∼10⁵ R _g would have contributed to the nearly instantaneous non-thermal radiation directly or indirectly, and therefore affects the time when the state transition occurs.