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Register a new userConstraining X-ray Binary Jet Models via Reflection
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Although thermal disk emission is suppressed or absent in the hard state of X-ray binaries, the presence of a cold, thin disk can be inferred from signatures of reprocessing in the ~2-50 keV band. The strength of this signature is dependent on the source spectrum and flux impinging on the disk surface, and is thus very sensitive to the system geometry. The general weakness of this feature in the hard state has been attributed to either a truncation of the thin disk, large ionization, or beaming of the corona region away from the disk with beta~0.3. This latter velocity is comparable to jet nozzle velocities, so we explore whether a jet can account for the observed reflection fractions. It has been suggested that jets may contribute to the high-energy spectra of X-ray binaries, via either synchrotron from around 100-1000 r_g along the jet axis or from inverse Compton (synchrotron self-Compton and/or external Compton) from near the base. Here we calculate the reflection fraction from jet models wherein either synchrotron or Compton processes dominate the emission. Using as a guide a data set for GX 339-4, where the reflection fraction previously has been estimated as ~10%, we study the results for a jet model. We find that the synchrotron case gives < 2% reflection, while a model with predominantly synchrotron self-Compton in the base gives ~10-18%. This shows for the first time that an X-ray binary jet is capable of significant reflection fractions, and that extreme values of the reflection may be used as a way of discerning the dominant contributions to the X-ray spectrum.
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We present an analysis of the observed broad iron line feature and putative warm absorber in the long 2001 XMM-Newton observation of the Seyfert-1.2 galaxy MCG-6-30-15. The new kerrdisk model we have designed for simulating line emission from accretion disk systems allows black hole spin to be a free parameter in the fit, enabling the user to formally constrain the angular momentum of a black hole, among other physical parameters of the system. In an important extension of previous work, we derive constraints on the black hole spin in MCG-6-30-15 using a self-consistent model for X-ray reflection from the surface of the accretion disk while simultaneously accounting for absorption by dusty photoionized material along the line of sight (the warm absorber). Even including these complications, the XMM-Newton/EPIC-pn data require extreme relativistic broadening of the X-ray reflection spectrum; assuming no emission from within the radius of marginal stability, we derive a formal constraint on the dimensionless black hole spin parameter of a > 0.987 at 90% confidence. The principal unmodeled effect that can significantly reduce the inferred black hole spin is powerful emission from within the radius of marginal stability. Although significant theoretical developments are required to fully understand this region, we argue that the need for a rapidly spinning black hole is robust to physically plausible levels of emission from within the radius of marginal stability. In particular, we show that a non-rotating black hole is strongly ruled out.
Some recent observational results impose significant constraints on all the models that have been proposed to explain the Galactic black-hole X-ray sources in the hard state. In particular, it has been found that during the hard state of Cyg X-1 the power-law photon number spectral index is correlated with the average time lag between hard and soft X-rays. Furthermore, the peak frequencies of the four Lorentzians that fit the observed power spectra are correlated with both the photon index and the time lag. We performed Monte Carlo simulations of Compton upscattering of soft, accretion-disk photons in the jet and computed the time lag between hard and soft photons and the power-law index of the resulting photon number spectra. We demonstrate that our jet model naturally explains the above correlations, with no additional requirements and no additional parameters.
The observed samples of supernovae (SN) and double compact objects (DCOs) provide several critical constraints on population-synthesis models: the parameters of these models must be carefully chosen to reproduce, among other factors, (i) the formation rates of double neutron star (NS-NS) binaries and of white dwarf-neutron star (WD-NS) binaries, estimated from binary samples, and (ii) the type II and Ib/c supernova rates. Even allowing for extremely conservative accounting of the uncertainties in observational and theoretical predictions, we find only a few plausible population synthesis models (roughly 9%) are consistent with DCO and SN rates empirically determined from observations. As a proof of concept, we describe the information that can be extracted about population synthesis models given such stringent observational tests, including surprisingly good agreement with the neutron star kick distributions inferred from pulsar proper-motion measurements. In the present study, we find that the current observational constraints favor: kicks described by a single Maxwellian with a typical velocity of about 300km/s; mass-loss fractions during non-conservative, but stable, mass transfer episodes of about 90%; and common envelope parameters of about 0.2-0.5. Finally, we use the subset of astrophysically consistent models to predict the rates at which black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) and NS-NS binaries merge in the Milky Way and the nearby Universe, assuming Milky-Way-like galaxies dominate. (Abridged)
We present the results of simultaneous X-ray and radio observations of the peculiar Z-type neutron star X-ray binary Cir X-1, observed with the Rossi X-ray timing explorer satellite and the Australia Telescope Compact Array in 2000 October and 2002 December. We identify typical Z source behaviour in the power density spectra as well as characteristic Z patterns drawn in an X-ray hardness-intensity diagram. Power spectra typical of bright atoll sources have also been identified at orbital phases after the periastron passage, while orbital phases before the periastron passage are characterized by power spectra that are typical neither of Z nor of atoll sources. We investigate the coupling between the X-ray and the radio properties, focusing on three orbital phases when an enhancement of the radio flux density has been detected, to test the link between the inflow (X-ray) and the outflow (radio jet) to/from the compact object. In two out of three cases we associate the presence of the radio jet to a spectral transition in the X-rays, although the transition does not precede the radio flare, as detected in other Z sources. An analogous behaviour has recently been found in the black hole candidate GX 339-4. In the third case, the radio light curve shows a similar shape to the X-ray light curve. We discuss our results in the context of jet models, considering also black hole candidates.
We present 3-79 keV NuSTAR observations of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1636-53 in the soft, transitional and hard state. The spectra display a broad emission line at 5-10 keV. We applied several models to fit this line: A GAUSSIAN line, a relativistically broadened emission line model, KYRLINE, and two models including relativistically smeared and ionized reflection off the accretion disc with different coronal heights, RELXILL and RELXILLLP. All models fit the spectra well, however, the KYRLINE and RELXILL models yield an inclination of the accretion disc of $sim88degree$ with respect to the line of sight, which is at odds with the fact that this source shows no dips or eclipses. The RELXILLLP model, on the other hand, gives a reasonable inclination of $sim56degree$. We discuss our results for these models in this source and the possible primary source of the hard X-rays.
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