No Arabic abstract
We report on the X-ray spectral analysis and time evolution of GRS 1739$-$278 during its 2014 outburst based on MAXI/GSC and Swift/XRT observations. Over the course of the outburst, a transition from the low/hard state to the high/soft state and then back to the low/hard state was seen. During the high/soft state, the innermost disk temperature mildly decreased, while the innermost radius estimated with the multi-color disk model remained constant at $sim18 (frac{D}{8.5 mathrm{kpc}}) {(frac{cos i}{cos 30^{circ}})}^{-1/2}$ km, where $D$ is the source distance and $i$ is the inclination of observation. This small innermost radius of the accretion disk suggests that the central object is more likely to be a Kerr black hole rather than a Schwardzschild black hole. Applying a relativistic disk emission model to the high/soft state spectra, a mass upper limit of $18.3 mathrm{M_{odot}}$ was obtained based on the inclination limit $i<60^{circ}$ for an assumed distance of 8.5 kpc. Using the empirical relation of the transition luminosity to the Eddington limit, the mass is constrained to $4.0-18.3 mathrm{M_{odot}}$ for the same distance. The mass can be further constrained to be no larger than $9.5 mathrm{M_{odot}}$ by adopting the constraints based on the fits to the NuSTAR spectra with relativistically blurred disk reflection models (Miller et al. 2015).
During the scanning observations of the Galactic Center region in August - September 2016 we detected the new outburst of the historical X-ray nova GRS 1739-278, the black hole candidate LMXB system. In this letter we present results of INTEGRAL and Swift-XRT observations taken during the outburst. In hard X-ray band (20-60 keV) the flux from the source raised from $sim$11 to $sim$30 mCrab between 3 and 14 of September. For nearly 8 days the source has been observed at this flux level and then faded to $sim$15 mCrab. The broadband quasi-simultaneous spectrum obtained during the outburst is well described by the absorbed powerlaw with the photon index $Gamma=1.86pm0.07$ in broad energy range 0.5-150 keV, with absorption corresponding to ${N_{H}}=2.3times10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$ assuming solar abundance. Based on this we can conclude that the source was in the low/hard state. From the lightcurve and spectra we propose that this outburst was `failed, i.e. amount of accreted matter was not sufficient to achieve the high/soft spectral state with dominant soft blackbody component as seen in normal outbursts of black hole candidates.
We report a discovery of low-frequency quasi periodic oscillation at 0.3-0.7 Hz in the power spectra of the accreting black hole GRS1739-278 in the hard-intermediate state during its 2014 outburst based on the ${it NuSTAR}$ and Swift/XRT data. The QPO frequency strongly evolved with the source flux during the NuSTAR observation. The source spectrum became softer with rising QPO frequency and simultaneous increasing of the power-law index and decreasing of the cut-off energy. In the power spectrum, a prominent harmonic is clearly seen together with the main QPO peak. The fluxes in the soft and the hard X-ray bands are coherent, however, the coherence drops for the energy bands separated by larger gaps. The phase-lags are generally positive (hard) in the 0.1-3 Hz frequency range, and negative below 0.1 Hz. The accretion disc inner radius estimated with the relativistic reflection spectral model appears to be $R_{rm in} < 7.3 R_{rm g}$. In the framework of the relativistic precession model, in order to satisfy the constraints from the observed QPO frequency and the accretion disc truncation radius, a massive black hole with $M_{rm BH} approx 100$M$_odot$ is required.
We present a detailed spectral analysis of XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations of the accreting transient black hole GRS 1739-278 during a very faint low hard state at ~0.02% of the Eddington luminosity (for a distance of 8.5 kpc and a mass of 10 M_sun ). The broad-band X-ray spectrum between 0.5-60 keV can be well-described by a power law continuum with an exponential cutoff. The continuum is unusually hard for such a low luminosity, with a photon index of Gamma = 1.39 +/- 0.04. We find evidence for an additional reflection component from an optically thick accretion disk at the 98% likelihood level. The reflection fraction is low with R_refl = 0.043(+0.033,-0.023). In combination with measurements of the spin and inclination parameters made with NuSTAR during a brighter hard state by Miller and co-workers, we seek to constrain the accretion disk geometry. Depending on the assumed emissivity profile of the accretion disk, we find a truncation radius of 15-35 Rg (5-12 R_ISCO ) at the 90% confidence limit. These values depend strongly on the assumptions and we discuss possible systematic uncertainties.
We analyzed the multi-band optical behaviour of the BL Lacertae object, S5 0716+714, during its outburst state from 2014 November - 2015 March. We took data on 23 nights at three observatories, one in India and two in Bulgaria, making quasi-simultaneous observations in B, V, R, and I bands. We measured multi-band optical fluxes, colour and spectral variations for this blazar on intraday and short timescales. The source was in a flaring state during the period analyzed and displayed intense variability in all wavelengths. R band magnitude of 11.6 was attained by the target on 18 Jan 2015, which is the brightest value ever recorded for S5 0716+714. The discrete correlation function method yielded good correlation between the bands with no measurable time lags, implying that radiation in these bands originate from the same region and by the same mechanism. We also used the structure function technique to look for characteristic timescales in the light curves. During the times of rapid variability, no evidence for the source to display spectral changes with magnitude was found on either of the timescales. The amplitude of variations tends to increase with increasing frequency with a maximum of $sim$ 22% seen during flaring states in B band. A mild trend of larger variability amplitude as the source brightens was also found. We found the duty cycle of our source during the analyzed period to be $sim$ 90%. We also investigated the optical spectral energy distribution of S5 0716+714 using B, V, R, and I data points for 21 nights. We briefly discuss physical mechanisms most likely responsible for its flux and spectral variations.
We investigate systematically four outbursts of black hole system GX 339-4 observed by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) in both spectral and timing domains and find that these outbursts have some common properties although they experience different q tracks in the hardness-intensity diagram (HID). While the spectral indices are around 1.5 in low hard state (LHS), 2.4 in soft intermediate state (SIMS) and high soft state (HSS), the spectral parameters of thermal, non-thermal and reflection components vary significantly in transitions from LHS to HIMS. Also the quasi periodic oscillation (QPO) shows a peculiar behavior during the state transition between LHS and HIMS: the RMS drop of type C fundamental QPO is accompanied with showing-up of the second harmonic. Interestingly, the QPO RMS is found to have a similar linear relationship with the non-thermal fraction of emission in different outbursts. These findings provide more clues to our understanding the outburst of the black hole X-ray binary system.