GX 339—4: the distance, state transitions, hysteresis and spectral correlations

By A. Zdziarski, Marek Gierlinski, J. Mikołajewska, G. Wardziński, David M. Smith, B. A. Harmon, S. Kitamoto. 2004

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We study X-ray and variability and distance of GX 339–4. We derive the distance of > 7 kpc, based on recent determination of the binary parameters. We study data from the ASM aboard Ginga, the BATSE aboard CGRO, and the ASM, PCA and HEXTE aboard RXTE. From 1987 to 2004, GX 339–4 underwent �15 outbursts and went through all known states of black-hole binaries. For the first time, we present the PCA data from the initial hard state of the outburst of 2004. We then study colourcolour and colour-flux correlations. In the hard state, there is a strong anticorrelation between the 1.5–5 and 3–12 keV spectral slopes, which we explain by thermal Comptonization of disc photons. There is also a softening of the spectrum above 3 keV with the increasing flux that becomes stronger with increasing energy up to �200 keV. This indicates an anticorrelation between the electron temperature and luminosity, explained by hot accretion models. In addition, we see a variable broad-band slope with a pivot at �200 keV. In the soft state, there is a high energy tail with varying amplitude beyond a strong and variable blackbody component. We confirm the presence of pronounced hysteresis, with the hard-to-soft state transitions occurring at much higher (and variable) luminosities than the soft-to-hard transitions. We fit the RXTE/ASM data with a model consisting of an outer accretion disc and a hot inner flow. State transitions are associated then with variations in the disc truncation radius, which we fit as � 6GM/c 2 in the soft state and several times that in the hard state. The disappearence of the inner disc takes place at a lower accretion rate than its initial appearance due to the dependence of the transitions on the source history. We provide further evidence against the X-ray emission in the hard state being nonthermal synchrotron, and explain the observed radio-X-ray correlation by the jet power being correlated with the accretion power.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Biomedical Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7af79aa68ccf438315e25f5bcc7de6f0293838d7

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Citations in the corpus

A systematic look at the Very High and Low/Hard state of GX 339-4: Constraining the black hole spin with a new reflection model (2008, background): “Its distance has been estimated at 8kpc (Zdziarski et al. 2004).”
WATCHDOG: A COMPREHENSIVE ALL-SKY DATABASE OF GALACTIC BLACK HOLE X-RAY BINARIES (2015, background): “…(ii) complicated non-trivial behavior exhibited during outburst such as double (or multiple) peak features (e.g., XTE J1550−564; Kubota & Makishima 2004), extended flare-like activity (e.g., 4U 1630−472; Tomsick et al. 2005), and prolonged outburst periods (e.g., GX 339−4; Zdziarski et al. 2004).”
The evolution of the timing properties of the black-hole transient GX 339-4 during its 2002/2003 outburst (2005, unknown): “Spectral analysis of these data up to 2004 Jan. 29 was included in the longterm study by Zdziarski et al. (2004).”
Low-frequency oscillations in black holes: a spectral-timing approach to the case of GX 339-4 (2011, unknown): “5 × 1022cm−2(Zdziarski et al. 2004).”
A Unified Model for Black Hole X-Ray Binary Jets? (2004, background): “Spectral fits over the period focussed on in Fig 1(b) indicatea fitted inner disc radius which decreased dramatically at the pointof spectral softening (Zdziarski et al. 2004; Nespoli 2004).”
Jets in neutron star X-ray binaries: a comparison with black holes (2005, methodology): “We calculated thluminosities assuming the (minimum) distance of 7 kpc, inferred by Zdziarski et al. (2004).”
Radiative efficiency of hot accretion flows (2012, result): “This is consistent with X-ray observations (e.g. Zdziarski et al. 2004).”
Radiatively efficient accreting black holes in the hard state: the case study of H1743-322 (2011, methodology): “convert fluxes into luminosity, we used a distance of 8 kpc for GX 339-4 (Zdziarski et al. 2004) and the new distance of 2.39 kpc for V404 Cyg, that was derived using accurate astrometric VLBI observations (Miller-Jones et al. 2009).”
Rapid optical and X-ray timing observations of GX 339-4: multi-component optical variability in the low/hard state (2010, methodology): “We assume a compact object mass of 6 M⊙, consistent with the best determination of the mass function of 5.8±0.5 M⊙(Hynes et al. 2003b), and a distance of 8 kpc (a range of 6– 15 kpc has been suggested in the literature; e.g. Hynes et al.2004; Zdziarski et al. 2004).”
Going with the Flow: Can the Base of Jets Subsume the Role of Compact Accretion Disk Coronae? (2005, background): “There has been question in the literature (e.g., Zdziarski et al. 2004) as to whether or not jet models can adequately describe the spectral cutoff of the hard tail.”
A global spectral study of black hole X-ray binaries (2009, unknown): “…(16) Pottschmidt et al. (2006), (17) Smith et al. (2002) , (18) Casares et al. (2004) , (19) Kitamoto et al. (1990) , (20) Hynes et al. (2003) , (21) Zdziarski et al. (2004) , (22) Miller et al. (2004) , (23) Capitanio et al. (2005) , (24) Wagner et al. (2001) , (25) Chaty et al. (2003) , (26)…”
Global optical/infrared-X-ray correlations in X-ray binaries: quantifying disc and jet contributions (2006, unknown): “…& Harrison (2003); (3) Boyd et al. (2000); (4) Kovács (2000); (5) Jonker & Nelemans (2004); (6) Chaty et al. (2003); (7) Casares et al. (2004); (8) Zdziarski et al. (2004); (9) della Valle, Mirabel & Rodriguez (1994); (10) Cadolle Bel et al. (2004); (11) Chapuis & Corbel (2004); (12) Williams et…”
The 'universal' radio/X-ray flux correlation : the case study of the black hole GX 339-4 (2012, methodology): “We fixed the hydrogen column density to NH = 6 × 10 21 cm−2, which is a typical value observed in GX 339−4 (e.g. Zdziarski et al. 2004; Cadolle Bel et al. 2011).”