No Arabic abstract
Accretion is an essential physical process in black-hole X-ray binaries (BHXRBs) and active galactic nuclei. The properties of accretion flows and their radiation were originally considered to be uniquely determined by the mass accretion rate of the disk; however, the ``hysteresis effect observed during outbursts of nearly all BHXRBs seriously challenges this paradigm. The hysteresis effect is referred to that the hard-to-soft state transition in the fast-rise stage occurs at much higher luminosity than the soft-to-hard state transition in the slow-decay stage. That is, the same source can show different spectral/temporal properties at the same luminosity. Phenomenologically, this effect is also represented as the so-called ``q-shaped hardness-intensity diagram, which has been proposed as a unified scene for BHXRBs. However, there is still a lack of quantitative theoretical interpretation and observational understanding on the ``q-diagram. Here, we present a detailed time-lag analysis of a recently found BHXRB, MAXI J1348-630, intensively monitored by Insight-HXMT over a broad energy band (1-150 keV). We find the first observational evidence that the observed time-lag between radiations of the accretion disk and the corona leads naturally to the hysteresis effect and the ``q-diagram. Moreover, complemented by the quasi-simultaneous Swift data, we achieve a panorama of the accretion flow: the hard X-ray outburst from the corona heats and subsequently induces the optical brightening in the outer disk with nearly no lag; thereafter, the enhanced accretion in the outer disk propagates inward, generating the delayed soft X-ray outburst at the viscous timescale of ~ 8-12 days.
We present HI absorption spectra of the black hole candidate X-ray binary (XRB) MAXI J1348-630 using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and MeerKAT. The ASKAP HI spectrum shows a maximum negative radial velocity (with respect to the local standard of rest) of $-31pm4$ km s$^{-1}$ for MAXI J1348-630, as compared to $-50pm4$ km s$^{-1}$ for a stacked spectrum of several nearby extragalactic sources. This implies a most probable distance of $2.2^{+0.5}_{-0.6}$ kpc for MAXI J1348-630, and a strong upper limit of the tangent point distance at $5.3pm0.1$ kpc. Our preferred distance implies that MAXI J1348-630 reached $17pm10$ % of the Eddington luminosity at the peak of its outburst, and that the source transited from the soft to the hard X-ray spectral state at $2.5pm1.5$ % of the Eddington luminosity. The MeerKAT HI spectrum of MAXI J1348-630 (obtained from the older, low-resolution 4k mode) is consistent with the re-binned ASKAP spectrum, highlighting the potential of the eventual capabilities of MeerKAT for XRB spectral line studies.
We studied the outburst evolution and timing properties of the recently discovered X-ray transient MAXI J1348-630 as observed with NICER. We produced the fundamental diagrams commonly used to trace the spectral evolution, and power density spectra to study the fast X-ray variability. The main outburst evolution of MAXI J1348-630 is similar to that commonly observed in black hole transients. The source evolved from the hard state, through hard- and soft-intermediate states, into the soft state in the outburst rise, and back to the hard state in reverse during the outburst decay. At the end of the outburst, MAXI J1348-630 underwent two reflares with peak fluxes ~1 and ~2 orders of magnitude fainter than the main outburst, respectively. During the reflares, the source remained in the hard state only, without undergoing any state transitions, which is similar to the so-called failed outbursts. Different types of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are observed at different phases of the outburst. Based on our spectral-timing results, we conclude that MAXI J1348-630 is a black hole candidate.
Black hole low mass X-ray binaries in their hard spectral state are found to display two different correlations between the radio emission from the compact jets and the X-ray emission from the inner accretion flow. Here, we present a large data set of quasi-simultaneous radio and X-ray observations of the recently discovered accreting black hole MAXI J1348-630 during its 2019/2020 outburst. Our results span almost six orders of magnitude in X-ray luminosity, allowing us to probe the accretion-ejection coupling from the brightest to the faintest phases of the outburst. We find that MAXI J1348-630 belongs to the growing population of outliers at the highest observed luminosities. Interestingly, MAXI J1348-630 deviates from the outlier track at $L_{rm X} lesssim 7 times 10^{35} (D / 2.2 {rm kpc})^2$ erg s$^{-1}$ and ultimately rejoins the standard track at $L_{rm X} simeq 10^{33} (D / 2.2 {rm kpc})^2$ erg s$^{-1}$, displaying a hybrid radio/X-ray correlation, observed only in a handful of sources. However, for MAXI J1348-630 these transitions happen at luminosities much lower than what observed for similar sources (at least an order of magnitude). We discuss the behaviour of MAXI J1348-630 in light of the currently proposed scenarios and we highlight the importance of future deep monitorings of hybrid correlation sources, especially close to the transitions and in the low luminosity regime.
We report the discovery of a giant dust scattering ring around the Black Hole transient MAXI J1348-630 with SRG/eROSITA during its first X-ray all-sky survey. During the discovery observation in February 2020 the ring had an outer diameter of 1.3 deg, growing to 1.6 deg by the time of the second all sky survey scan in August 2020. This makes the new dust ring the by far largest X-ray scattering ring observed so far. Dust scattering halos, in particular the rings found around transient sources, offer the possibility of precise distance measurements towards the original X-ray sources. We combine data from SRG/eROSITA, XMM-Newton, MAXI, and Gaia to measure the geometrical distance of MAXI J1348-630. The Gaia data place the scattering dust at a distance of 2050 pc, from the measured time lags and the geometry of the ring, we find MAXI J1348-630 at a distance of 3390 pc with a statistical uncertainty of only 1.1% and a systematic uncertainty of 10% caused mainly by the parallax offset of Gaia. This result makes MAXI J1348-630 one of the black hole transients with the best determined distances. The new distance leads to a revised mass estimate for the black hole of 11+-2 solar masses, the transition to the soft state during the outburst occurred when the bolometric luminosity of MAXI J1348-630 had reached 1.7% of its Eddington luminosity.
The fast variability observed in the X-ray emission from black-hole binaries has a very complex phenomenology, but offers the possibility to investigate directly the properties of the inner accretion flow. In particular, type-B oscillations in the 2-8 Hz range, observed in the Soft-Intermediate state, have been associated to the emission from a relativistic jet. We present the results of the timing and spectral analysis of a set of observations of the bright transient MAXI J1348-630 made with the NICER telescope. The observations are in the brightest part of the outburst and all feature a strong type-B QPO at ~4.5 Hz. We compute the energy dependence of the fractional rms and the phase lags at the QPO frequency, obtaining high signal-to-noise data and sampling for the first time at energies below 2 keV. The fractional rms decreases from more than 10% at 9 keV to 0.6% at 1.5 keV, and is constant below that energy. Taking the 2-3 keV band as reference, photons at all energies show a hard lag, increasing with the distance from the reference band. The behaviour below 2 keV has never been observed before, due to the higher energy bandpass of previous timing instruments. The energy spectrum can be fitted with a standard model for this state, consisting of a thin disc component and a harder power law, plus an emission line between 6 and 7 keV. We discuss the results, concentrating on the phase lags, and show that they can be interpreted within a Comptonization model.