No Arabic abstract
Long time scale radio-X-ray correlations in black holes during the hard state have been found in many sources and there seems to emerge a universal underlying relationship which quantitatively describes this behavior. Although it would appear only natural to detect short term emission patterns in the X-ray and - with a certain time lag - in the radio, there has been little evidence for this up to now. The most prominent source for radio-X-ray correlations on short time scales (minutes) so far remains GRS 1915+105 where a single mass ejection could be detected successively in the X-ray, IR, and radio wavebands. We analyze a database of more than 4 years of simultaneous radio-X-ray data for Cygnus X-1 from the Ryle Telescope and RXTE PCA/HEXTE. We confirm the existence of a radio-X-ray correlation on long time scales, especially at hard energies. We show that apparent correlations on short time scales in the lightcurves of Cygnus X-1 are most likely the coincidental outcome of white noise statistics. Interpreting this result as a breakdown of radio-X-ray correlations on shorter time scales, this sets a limit to the speed of the jet.
We present an analysis of long term X-ray monitoring observations of Circinus X-1 (Cir X-1) made with four different instruments: Vela 5B, Ariel V ASM, Ginga ASM, and RXTE ASM, over the course of more than 30 years. We use Lomb-Scargle periodograms to search for the ~16.5 day orbital period of Cir X-1 in each of these data sets and from this derive a new orbital ephemeris based solely on X-ray measurements, which we compare to the previous ephemerides obtained from radio observations. We also use the Phase Dispersion Minimization (PDM) technique, as well as FFT analysis, to verify the periods obtained from periodograms. we obtain dynamic periodograms (both Lomb-Scargle and PDM) of Cir X-1 during the RXTE era, showing the period evolution of Cir X-1, and also displaying some unexplained discrete jumps in the location of the peak power.
We present a study of the long-term variability of Cyg X-1 using data from the RXTE/ASM and the RXTE/PCA during the time between the two soft states of 1996 and 2001/2002. This period has been characterized by many short ASM flaring episodes which we have identified as failed state transitions. The 150 d period which has been seen before and shortly after the 1996 soft state is not obviously present in the ASM rate during most of this time. Applying selection criteria from our pointed RXTE/PCA observations to exclude the flaring episodes we show that the 150 d period can indeed still be significantly detected in the hard state. Furthermore, while the ~420 d timescale associated with the flaring is reduced in the selected hard state count rate, it is still pronounced in the temporal evolution of the corresponding hardness ratios. The Ryle radio flux is also consistent with the 150 d period being present but distorted during this time.
(abbreviated abstract) We present the long term spectral evolution of the Galactic black hole candidate Cygnus X-1 in the X-rays and at 15GHz using ~200 pointed observations taken between early 1999 and late 2004 with RXTE and the Ryle radio telescope. The X-ray spectra are remarkably well described by a simple broken power law spectrum with an exponential cutoff. Physically motivated Comptonization models, e.g., compTT or eqpair, can reproduce this simplicity. Broken power law models reveal a significant linear correlation between the photon index of the lower energy power law and the hardening of the power law at approximately 10keV. Comptonization models show that the bolometric flux of a soft excess (e.g., disk component) is strongly correlated with the compactness ratio of the Comptonizing medium. We also find that the fraction of the time spent in low radio emission/soft X-ray spectral states has increased from ~10% in 1996-2000 to ~34% since early 2000. Radio flares typically occur during state transitions and failed state transitions. There is also a strong correlation between the 10-50keV X-ray flux and the radio luminosity of the source. We demonstrate that rather than there being distinctly separated states, in contrast to the timing properties the spectrum of Cyg X-1 shows variations between extremes of properties, with clear cut examples of spectra at every intermediate point in the observed spectral correlations.
We report on the first detection of a quasi-simultaneous radio-X-ray flare of Cygnus X-1. The detection was made on 2005 April 16 with pointed observations by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer and the Ryle telescope, during a phase where the black hole candidate was close to a transition from the its soft into its hard state. The radio flare lagged the X-rays by approximately 7 minutes, peaking at 3:20 hours barycentric time (TDB 2453476.63864). We discuss this lag in the context of models explaining such flaring events as the ejection of electron bubbles emitting synchrotron radiation.
We present the long term evolution of the timing properties of the black hole candidate Cygnus X-1 in the 0.002-128 Hz frequency range as monitored from 1998 to 2001 with the RXTE. The hard state power spectral density (PSD) is well modeled as the sum of four Lorentzians, which describe distinct broad noise components. Before 1998 July, Cyg X-1 was in a quiet hard state characterized primarily by the first three of these broad Lorentzians. Around 1998 May, this behavior changed: the total fractional rms amplitude decreased, the peak frequencies of the Lorentzians increased, the average time lag slightly increased, and the X-ray spectrum softened. The change in the timing parameters is mainly due to a strong decrease in the amplitude of the third Lorentzian. Since then, an unusually large number of X-ray flares have been observed. During these failed state transitions, the X-ray power spectrum changes to that of the intermediate state. Modeling this PSD with the four Lorentzians, we find that the first Lorentzian component is suppressed relative to the second and third Lorentzian. Also the frequency-dependent time lags increase significantly. We confirm the interpretation as failed state transitions with observations from the 2001 Jan. and 2001 Oct. soft states. Such behavior suggests that some or all of the Lorentzian components are associated with the accretion disk corona. We discuss the physical interpretation of our results.