Do X-ray binary spectral state transition luminosities vary?

By T. Maccarone. 2003

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We tabulate the luminosities of the soft-to-hard state transitions of all X-ray binaries for which there exist good X-ray flux measurements at the time of the transition, good distance estimates, and good mass estimates for the compact star. We show that the state transition luminosities are at about 1-4% of the Eddington rate, markedly smaller than those typically quoted in the literature, with a mean value of 2%. Only the black hole candidate GRO J 1655-40 and the neutron star systems Aql X-1 and 4U 1728-34 have measured state transition luminosities inconsistent with this value at the 1σ level. GRO J 1655-40, in particular, shows a state transition luminosity below the mean value for the other sources at the 4σ level. This result, combined with the known inner disk inclination angle (the disk is nearly parallel to the line of sight) from GRO J 1655-40's relativistic jets suggest that the hard X-ray emitting region in GRO J 1655-40 can have a velocity of no more than about β = 0.68, with a most likely value of about β = 0.52, and a minimum speed of β = 0.45, assuming that the variations in state transition luminosities are solely due to relativistic beaming effects. The variance in the state transition luminosities suggests an emission region with a velocity of ∼0.2c. The results are discussed in terms of different emission models for the low/hard state. We also discuss the implications for measuring the dimensionless viscosity parameter α. We also find that if its state transitions occur at typical luminosities, then GX 339-4 is likely to be at a distance of at least 7.6 kpc, much further than typically quoted estimates.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Biomedical Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/37e2ba976e67145d4d83a6604f9a88511519099e

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Citations in the corpus

The distances to Galactic low-mass X-ray binaries: consequences for black hole luminosities and kicks (2004, methodology): “The limit on the distance of GX 339–4 found by Maccarone (2003) indicates that d>7.6 kpc.”
On the Origin of Radio Emission in the X-Ray States of XTE J1650–500 during the 2001-2002 Outburst (2004, unknown): “In the hard state, the radio emission of XTE J1650−500 can be interpreted (like other BHCs) as arising from a self-absorbed compact jet.”
Going with the Flow: Can the Base of Jets Subsume the Role of Compact Accretion Disk Coronae? (2005, background): “Such weak beaming factors are suggested by observations of HS jets (Maccarone 2003; Gallo et al. 2003), in contrast to the near light-speed velocities implied by superluminal motion in higher luminosity radio-emitting states.”
GX 339—4: the distance, state transitions, hysteresis and spectral correlations (2004, background): “Overall, L follows changes in the observed 1.5–12 keV flux, 2 Note that Maccarone (2003) estimated from the ASM data that the maximum bolometric flux during the second outburst was 1.4 × 10−7 erg cm−2 s−1, which is 2.4 times our ASM estimate.”
A Unified Model for Black Hole X-Ray Binary Jets? (2004, background): “…X-ray binary jets is most simply put as follows: in the low/hard state, which exists typically below a few % of the Eddington luminosityLEdd (e.g. Maccarone 2003; McClintock & Remillard 2004) there is a ‘compact’ selfabsorbed jet which manifests itself as a ‘flat’ (spectral indexα ∼ 0 whereα =…”
MCG–6-30-15: long time-scale X-ray variability, black hole mass and active galactic nuclei high states (2005, background): “Indeed Peterson et al. (2004) show that the average accretion rate for the current sample of AGN is roughly 10 percent of the Eddington rate, which exceeds the∼ 2 percent rate which typifies the transition to the high state in galactic X-ray binary systems (Maccarone 2003).”
The anti‐hierarchical growth of supermassive black holes (2004, background): “Maccarone (2003) has shown that the hard-to-soft transition in these systems generally occurs at X-ray luminosities (in the 2–10 keV band) of about x cr 5 × 10−3.”
Black hole accretion discs in the canonical low‐hard state (2009, background): “The X-ray spectrum of BHB systems in their low-hard state is dominated by a power law with relatively low luminosity (≤0.05LEdd; Maccarone 2003), a photon index in the range ≈1.4– 2 and an exponential cut-off at about 100 keV.”
Self-regulated growth of supermassive black holes by a dual jet-heating active galactic nucleus feedback mechanism: methods, tests and implications for cosmological simulations (2011, background): “A transition to a radio-quiet ‘quasar’ mode occurs at a few ∼10−2 of the Eddington accretion rate for X-ray binaries (Maccarone 2003).”
WATCHDOG: A COMPREHENSIVE ALL-SKY DATABASE OF GALACTIC BLACK HOLE X-RAY BINARIES (2015, result): “However, both Dunn et al. (2010) and Maccarone (2003) find a significantly narrower range (0.05–0.10Ledd and 0.01–0.04Ledd, respectively) for the SDS-HCS transition luminosity, when compared to our results.”
On the fundamental dichotomy in the local radio-AGN population (2012, result): “…between these different accretion states in X-ray binary systems has been shown to depend upon the accretion rate onto the black hole, with the switch occurring at between 1 and a few percent of the Eddington rate (Maccarone 2003) - very similar to the value derived in this paper for radio-AGN.”
Intrinsic disc emission and the soft X‐ray excess in active galactic nuclei (2011, background): “0.02) except in the nonequilibrium states triggered by the dramatic outbursts in Galactic binary systems (Nowak 1995; Maccarone 2003; Gladstone, Done & Gierliński 2007; Yu & Yan 2009).”
Fueling Low-Level AGN Activity through Stochastic Accretion of Cold Gas (2006, unknown): “…ṁcrit , (122) for a transition between radiatively efficient and inefficient accretion atṁcrit ∼ 0.01 as suggested by observations of black hole binaries (Maccarone 2003) and AGN Eddington ratio distributions (Marchesini et al. 2004; Jester 2005), and theoretical extensions of accretion models…”
The Coevolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe (2014, background): “…accretion modes is observed to be the accretion rate onto the black hole relative to the Eddington rate: the low-hard state is associated with accretion rates below a few percent of the Eddington rate, whereas the high-soft state arises when the accretion rate exceeds that value (Maccarone 2003).”
A Unified, Merger-driven Model of the Origin of Starbursts, Quasars, the Cosmic X-Ray Background, Supermassive Black Holes, and Galaxy Spheroids (2005, background): “Although the critical Eddington ratio for supermassive black holes is uncertain, observations of black hole binaries (Maccarone 2003) as well as theoretical extensions of accretion models (e.g., Meyer, Liu, & Meyer-Hofmeister 2000) suggestṁcrit ∼ 0.01.”
A synthesis model for AGN evolution: supermassive black holes growth and feedback modes (2008, background): “Maccarone (2003) has shown that the state change in these systems generally occurs at (bolometric) luminosities of aboutλ ≃ a few×10−2.”
What drives the growth of black holes (2011, background): “…accretion rate, the accretion disc is predicted to change between an optically thick and an optically thin state – the transition from optically thin to optically thick is likely to correspond to an Eddington ratio of λ ≈ 10−3–10−2 (e.g., Esin et al., 1997; Gallo et al., 2003; Maccarone, 2003).”