Cyg X-1 Spectral Evolution 1999-2004 Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Wilms J.
  2. Nowak M.A.
  3. Pottschmidt K.
  4. Pooley G.G.
  5. Fritz S.
  6. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

Continuing the observational campaign initiated by our group, we present the long term spectral evolution of the Galactic black hole candidate Cygnus X-1 in the X-rays and at 15GHz. We present about 200 pointed observations taken between early 1999 and late 2004 with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer 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., by Titarchuk (1994ApJ...434..570T, compTT) and by Coppi (1999, eqpair), can reproduce this simplicity; however, the success of the phenomenological broken power law models cautions against ``over-parameterizing'' the more physical models. 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 about 10keV. This phenomenological soft/hard power law correlation is partly attributable to correlations of broad band continuum components, rather than being dominated by the weak hardness/reflection fraction correlation present in the Comptonization model. Specifically, the 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, with L_disk{propto}(l_h_/l_s_)^-0.19^. Over the course of our campaign, Cyg X-1 transited several times into the soft state, and exhibited a large number of ``failed state transitions''. The fraction of the time spent in such low radio emission/soft X-ray spectral states has increased from about 10% in 1996-2000 to about 34% since early 2000. We find that radio flares typically occur during state transitions and failed state transitions (at l_h_/l_s_~3), and that there is 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.

Keywords
  1. x-ray-binary-stars
  2. variable-stars
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2006A&A...447..245W
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/447/245
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/447/245
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.34470245

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History

2006-04-08T23:28:24Z
Resource record created
2006-04-08T23:28:24Z
Created
2006-04-08T23:31:00Z
Updated

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr