No Arabic abstract
We report on the analysis of the broad Fe Kalpha line feature of Cygnus X-1 in the spectra of four simultaneous hard intermediate state observations made with the X-ray Multiple Mirror mission (XMM-Newton), the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), and the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL). The high quality of the XMM-Newton data taken in the Modified Timing Mode of the EPIC-pn camera provides a great opportunity to investigate the broadened Fe Kalpha reflection line at 6.4keV with a very high signal to noise ratio. The 4-500keV energy range is used to constrain the underlying continuum and the reflection at higher energies. We first investigate the data by applying a phenomenological model that consists of the sum of an exponentially cutoff power law and relativistically smeared reflection. Additionally, we apply a more physical approach and model the irradiation of the accretion disk directly from the lamp post geometry. All four observations show consistent values for the black hole parameters with a spin of $asim 0.9$, in agreement with recent measurements from reflection and disk continuum fitting. The inclination is found to be $isim30^circ$, consistent with the orbital inclination and different from inclination measurements made during the soft state, which show a higher inclination. We speculate that the difference between the inclination measurements is due to changes in the inner region of the accretion disk.
We analysed data from five XMM-Newton observations of GX 13+1 to investigate the variability of the photo-ionised absorber present in this source. We fitted EPIC and RGS spectra obtained from the least-variable intervals with a model consisting of disc-blackbody and blackbody components together with a Gaussian emission feature at ~6.55-6.7 keV modified by absorption due to cold and photo-ionised material. We found a significant correlation between the hard, ~6-10 keV, flux, the ionisation and column density of the absorber and the equivalent width of the broad iron line. We interpret the correlation in a scenario in which a disc wind is thermally driven at large, ~10^{10} cm, radii and the broad line results from reprocessed emission in the wind and/or hot atmosphere. The breadth of the emission line is naturally explained by a combination of scattering, recombination and fluorescence processes. We attribute the variations in the absorption and emission along the orbital period to the view of different parts of the wind, possibly located at slightly different inclination angles. We constrain the inclination of GX 13+1 to be between 60 and 80 degrees from the presence of strong absorption in the line of sight, that obscures up to 80% of the total emission in one observation, and the absence of eclipses. We conclude that the presence of a disc wind and/or a hot atmosphere can explain the current observations of narrow absorption and broad iron emission features in neutron star low mass X-ray binaries as a class.
Since the discovery of the first broad iron-K line in 1995 from the Seyfert Galaxy MCG--6-30-15, broad iron-K lines have been found in several other Seyfert galaxies, from accreting stellar mass black holes and even from accreting neutron stars. The iron-K line is prominent in the reflection spectrum created by the hard X-ray continuum irradiating dense accreting matter. Relativistic distortion of the line makes it sensitive to the strong gravity and spin of the black hole. The accompanying iron-L line emission should be detectable when the iron abundance is high. Here we report the first discovery of both iron-K and L emission, using XMM-Newton observations of the Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy 1H0707-495. The bright Fe-L emission has enabled us, for the first time, to detect a reverberation lag of 30 s between the direct X-ray continuum and its reflection from matter falling into the hole. The observed reverberation timescale is comparable to the light-crossing time of the innermost radii around a supermassive black hole. The combination of spectral and timing data on 1H0707-495 provides strong evidence that we are witnessing emission from matter within a gravitational radius, or a fraction of a light-minute, from the event horizon of a rapidly-spinning, massive black hole.
We present results from a 20 ksec RXTE observation of the black hole candidate Cyg X-1. We apply self-consistent accretion disk corona models to these hard state data and show that Comptonization in a spherical corona irradiated by soft photons from an exterior cold disk is able to successfully model the spectrum. We also present the power spectrum, the coherence function, and the time lags for lightcurves from four energy bands. By modeling the high-resolution lightcurves with stochastic linear state space models, we show that the rapid hard state variability of Cyg X-1 can be explained with a single timescale.
We evaluate 0.03-20 Hz power spectra of the bright black hole binary Cyg X-1 obtained from non-deconvolved INTEGRAL-ISGRI event data. The ISGRI power spectra are compared to contemporary RXTE-PCA ones in the same hard X-ray energy band of 15-70 keV. They agree well in shape. Since the ISGRI power spectrum of Cyg X-1 is not background corrected it lies about an order of magnitude below the PCA values. In 2003 a soft outburst of Cyg X-1 occurred. From the RXTE-ASM and Ryle radio long term lightcurves and the RXTE spectra we see a canonical ``hard state -- intermediate state -- soft state evolution. We discuss the evolution of the power spectra in the 15-70 keV range which so far is much less well studied than that at softer energies. We interpret our results regarding the origin of certain variability components.
We present the second XMM-Newton observation (85 ks) of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy (NLS1) I Zw 1 and describe its mean spectral and timing characteristics. On average, I Zw 1 is ~35 per cent dimmer in 2005 than in the shorter (20 ks) 2002 observation. Between the two epochs the intrinsic absorption column density diminished, but there were also subtle changes in the continuum shape. Considering the blurred ionised reflection model, the long-term changes can be associated with a varying contribution of the power law component relative to the total spectrum. Examination of normalised light curves indicates that the high-energy variations are quite structured and that there are delays, but only in some parts of the light curve. Interestingly, a hard X-ray lag first appears during the most-distinct structure in the mean light curve, a flux dip ~25 ks into the observation. The previously discovered broad, ionised Fe Ka line shows significant variations over the course of the 2005 observation. The amplitude of the variations is 25-45 per cent and they are unlikely due to changes in the Fe ka-producing region, but perhaps arise from orbital motion around the black hole or obscuration in the broad iron line-emitting region. The 2002 data are re-examined for variability of the Fe Ka line at that epoch. There is evidence of energy and flux variations that are associated with a hard X-ray flare that occurred during that observation.