No Arabic abstract
We propose a scenario for a periodic filling and emptying of the accretion disc of GRS 1915+105, by computing the mass transfer rate from the donor and comparing it with the observed accretion rate. The binary parameters found by Greiner et al. (2001) predict evolutionary expansion of the donor along the giant branch with a conservative mass transfer rate (1 - 2)E-8 solar masses per year. This reservoir can support the present accretion with a duty cycle 0.05 - 0.1 (the active time as a fraction of the total life time). The viscosity time scale at the circularization radius (15 solar radii from the primary 14 solar mass black hole) is identified as the recurrent quiescent time during which a new disc is formed once consumed by the BH. For small viscosity (alpha = 0.001) it equals to 300 - 400 years. The microquasar phase, with the duty cycle, will last around 10 million years ending with a long period black hole + white dwarf system.
We present multiepoch VLBA observations of the compact jet of GRS 1915+105 conducted at 15.0 and 8.4 GHz during a {it plateau} state of the source in 2003 March-April. These observations show that the compact jet is clearly asymmetric. Assuming an intrinsically symmetric continuous jet flow, using Doppler boosting arguments and an angle to the line of sight of $theta=70degr$, we obtain values for the velocity of the flow in the range 0.3--0.5$c$. These values are much higher than in previous observations of such compact jet, although much lower than the highly relativistic values found during individual ejection events. These preliminary results are compatible with current ideas on the jet flow velocity for black holes in the low/hard state.
We present data from the first of six monitoring Open Time observations of GRS 1915+105 undertaken with the orbiting INTEGRAL satellite. The source was clearly detected with all three X-ray and gamma-ray instruments on board. GRS 1915+105 was in a highly variable state, as demonstrated by the JEM X-2 and ISGRI lightcurves. These and simultaneous RXTE/PCA lightcurves point to a novel type of variability pattern in the source. In addition, we fit the combined JEM X-2 and ISGRI spectrum between 3-300 keV with a disk blackbody + powerlaw model leading to typical parameter values found earlier at similar luminosity levels. A new transient, IGR J19140+098, was discovered during the present observation.
Most models of the low frequency quasi periodic oscillations (QPOs) in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) explain the dynamical properties of those QPOs. On the other hand, in recent years reverberation models that assume a lamp-post geometry have been successfull in explaining the energy-dependent time lags of the broad-band noise component in stellar mass black-holes and active galactic nuclei. We have recently shown that Comptonisation can explain the spectral-timing properties of the kilo-hertz (kHz) QPOs observed in neutron star (NS) LMXBs. It is therefore worth exploring whether the same family of models would be as successful in explaining the low-frequency QPOs. In this work, we use a Comptonisation model to study the frequency dependence of the phase lags of the type-C QPO in the BH LMXB GRS 1915+105. The phase lags of the QPO in GRS 1915+105 make a transition from hard to soft at a QPO frequency of around 1.8 Hz. Our model shows that at high QPO frequencies a large corona of ~ 100-150 R_g covers most of the accretion disc and makes it 100% feedback dominated, thus producing soft lags. As the observed QPO frequency decreases, the corona gradually shrinks down to around 3-17 R_g, and at 1.8 Hz feedback onto the disc becomes inefficient leading to hard lags. We discuss how changes in the accretion geometry affect the timing properties of the type-C QPO.
A scenario for a periodic filling and emptying of the accretion disc of the microquasar GRS 1915+105 is proposed, by computing the mass transfer rate from the evolving low mass red giant donor (Greiner at al. 2001) and comparing it with the observed accretion rate onto the primary black hole. We propose a duty-cycle with (5-10)(eta/0.1) per cent active ON-state where eta is the efficiency of converting accretion into radiation. The duration of the quiescent recurrent OFF-state is identified as the viscosity time scale at the circularization radius and equals 370(alpha/0.001)^(-4/5) years, where alpha is the viscosity parameter in the alpha-prescription of a classical disc. If the viscosity at the outer edge of the disc is small and eta is close to the maximum available potential energy (per rest mass energy) at the innermost stable orbit, the present active phase may last another 10 - 20 years.
We present the result of multi-wavelength observations of the microquasar GRS 1915+105 in a plateau state with a luminosity of ~7.5x10^{38) erg s-1 (~40% L_Edd), conducted simultaneously with the INTEGRAL and RXTE satellites, the ESO/NTT, the Ryle Telescope, the NRAO VLA and VLBA, in 2003 April 2-3. For the first time were observed concurrently in GRS 1915+105 all of the following properties: a strong steady optically thick radio emission corresponding to a powerful compact jet resolved with the VLBA, bright near-IR emission, a strong QPO at 2.5 Hz in the X-rays and a power law dominated spectrum without any cutoff in the 3-400 keV range.