The very high state accretion disc structure from the Galactic black hole transient XTE J1550 – 564

The 1998 outburst of the bright Galactic black hole binary system XTE J1550-564 was used to constrain the accretion disc structure in the strongly Comptonised very high state spectra. These data show that the disc emission is not easily compatible with the constant area L / T 4 behaviour seen during the thermal dominated high/soft state and weakly comptonised very high state. Even after correcting for the effects of the scattering geometry, the disc temperature is always much lower than expected for its derived luminosity in the very high state. The simplest interpretation is that this indicates that the optically thick disc is truncated in the strongly Comptonised very high state, so trivially giving the observed continuity of properties between the low/hard and very high states of Galactic black holes.

[1]  U. Tokyo,et al.  The Three Spectral Regimes Found in the Stellar Black Hole XTE J1550–564 in Its High/Soft State , 2003, astro-ph/0310085.

[2]  Martí,et al.  Relativistic Jets from Collapsars , 1999, The Astrophysical journal.

[3]  A. Zdziarski,et al.  Black hole accretion disks with coronae , 1994 .

[4]  A. Fabian,et al.  Evidence for ionized accretion discs in five narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies , 2000, astro-ph/0011360.

[5]  Ping Zhao,et al.  Dynamical Evidence for a Black Hole in the Microquasar XTE J1550–564 , 2001, astro-ph/0112101.

[6]  W. N. Johnson,et al.  Broad-band γ-ray and X-ray spectra of NGC 4151 and their implications for physical processes and geometry , 1996 .

[7]  J. Orosz,et al.  CORRELATIONS BETWEEN LOW-FREQUENCY QUASI-PERIODIC OSCILLATIONS AND SPECTRAL PARAMETERS IN XTE J1550(564 AND GRO J1655(40 , 1999, astro-ph/9910519.

[8]  K. Mitsuda,et al.  Application of a general relativistic accretion disk model to LMC X-1, LMC X-3, X1608 - 522, and X1636 - 536 , 1991 .

[9]  On the Vertical Structure of Radiation-Dominated Accretion Disks , 2004, astro-ph/0402539.

[10]  M. Muno,et al.  Characterizing the Quasi-periodic Oscillation Behavior of the X-Ray Nova XTE J1550–564 , 2002 .

[11]  G. Hasinger,et al.  An Intermediate State of Cygnus X-1 , 1996 .

[12]  C. Done,et al.  Evolution of the Accretion Flow in Nova Muscae 1991 , 1998, astro-ph/9801232.

[13]  Marc Klein-Wolt,et al.  Correlated X-ray Spectral and Timing Behavior of the Black Hole Candidate , 2000 .

[14]  T. Kawaguchi.  Comptonization in Super-Eddington Accretion Flow and Growth Timescale of Supermassive Black Holes , 2003, astro-ph/0304373.

[15]  The spectrum of the cosmic X-ray background observed by RTXE/PCA , 2003, astro-ph/0306569.

[16]  J. Orosz,et al.  X-Ray Nova XTE J1550–564: RXTE Spectral Observations , 1999, astro-ph/9903395.

[17]  Sergei Nayakshin,et al.  Thermal Instability and Photoionized X-Ray Reflection in Accretion Disks , 1999, astro-ph/9909359.

[18]  Psaltis,et al.  Quasi-Periodic Variability and the Inner Radii of Thin Accretion Disks in Galactic Black Hole Systems , 1999, The Astrophysical journal.

[19]  R. Narayan,et al.  Advection-Dominated Accretion and the Spectral States of Black Hole X-Ray Binaries: Application to Nova Muscae 1991 , 1997 .

[20]  Walter H. G. Lewin,et al.  X-ray binaries. , 1976 .

[21]  M. Klis,et al.  The EXOSAT Data on GX 339–4: Further Evidence for an “Intermediate” State , 1996, astro-ph/9611015.

[22]  M. Gierliński,et al.  Black hole accretion discs: reality confronts theory , 2003, astro-ph/0307333.

[23]  D. C. Marsden,et al.  In-Flight Performance of the High Energy X-Ray Timing Experiment on the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer , 1997, astro-ph/9710328.

[24]  A. Zdziarski,et al.  Angle-dependent Compton reflection of X-rays and gamma-rays , 1995 .

[25]  Kazuhiro Kimura,et al.  X-ray variability of GX 339 - 4 in its very high state , 1991 .

[26]  Keith A. Arnaud,et al.  An ionized accretion disk in Cygnus X-1 , 1992 .

[27]  Radiation mechanisms and geometry of cygnus X-1 in the soft state , 1999, astro-ph/9905146.

[28]  M. van der Klis.  Millisecond Oscillations in X-ray Binaries , 2000 .

[29]  Super‐Eddington accretion discs around Kerr black holes , 1998, astro-ph/9802129.

[30]  Cambridge,et al.  X-ray reflection by photoionized accretion discs , 2001, astro-ph/0102040.

[31]  A. R. Rao,et al.  OSSE and RXTE Observations of GRS 1915+105: Evidence for Nonthermal Comptonization , 2001, astro-ph/0104054.

[32]  J. Hawley,et al.  The Dynamical Structure of Nonradiative Black Hole Accretion Flows , 2002, astro-ph/0203309.

[33]  A. Merloni,et al.  On the interpretation of the multicolour disc model for black hole candidates , 2000 .

[34]  A. Fabian,et al.  X-ray reflection spectra from ionized slabs , 1999, astro-ph/9902325.

[35]  M. Gierliński,et al.  The X-ray/γ-ray spectrum of XTE J1550-564 in the very high state , 2002, astro-ph/0212384.

[36]  F. Takahara,et al.  On the Spectral Hardening Factor of the X-Ray Emission from Accretion Disks in Black Hole Candidates , 1995 .

[37]  Riken,et al.  Observational Evidence for Strong Disk Comptonization in GRO J1655–40 , 2001, astro-ph/0105426.

[38]  Alan M. Levine,et al.  Complete RXTE Spectral Observations of the Black Hole X-ray Nova XTE J1550–564 , 2000 .

[39]  R. Soria,et al.  The 1998 Outburst of XTE J1550–564: A Model Based on Multiwavelength Observations , 2001 .