Multiwavelength Observations of the 2002 Outburst of GX 339–4: Two Patterns of X-Ray-Optical/Near-Infrared Behavior

By J. Homan, M. Buxton, S. Markoff, C. Bailyn, E. Nespoli, T. Belloni. 2005

150 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We report on quasi-simultaneous Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer and optical/near-infrared (NIR) observations of the black hole candidate X-ray transient GX 339-4. Our observations were made over a time span of more than 8 months in 2002 and cover the initial rise and transition from a hard to a soft spectral state in X-rays. Two distinct patterns of correlated X-ray-optical/NIR behavior were found. During the hard state, the optical/NIR and X-ray fluxes correlated well, with a NIR versus X-ray flux power-law slope similar to that of the correlation found between X-ray and radio fluxes in previous studies of GX 339-4 and other black hole binaries. As the source went through an intermediate state, the optical/NIR fluxes decreased rapidly, and once it had entered the spectrally soft state, the optical/NIR spectrum of GX 339-4 was much bluer, and the ratio of X-ray to NIR flux was higher by a factor of more than 10 compared to the hard state. In the spectrally soft state, changes in the NIR preceded those in the soft X-rays by more than 2 weeks, indicating a disk origin of the NIR emission and providing a measure of the viscous timescale. A sudden onset of NIR flaring of ~0.5 mag on a timescale of 1 day was also observed during this period. We present spectral energy distributions, including radio data, and discuss possible sources for the optical/NIR emission. We conclude that, in the hard state, this emission probably originates in the optically thin part of a jet and that in none of the X-ray states is X-ray reprocessing the dominant source of optical/NIR emission. Finally, comparing the light curves from the all-sky monitor (ASM) and Proportional Counter Array (PCA) instruments, we find that the X-ray/NIR delay depends critically on the sensitivity of the X-ray detector, with the delay inferred from the PCA (if present at all) being a factor of 3-6 times shorter than the delay inferred from the ASM; this may be important in interpreting previously reported X-ray-optical/NIR lags.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/935e8e72a10a5a9a187ae3259525bbc390452fb5

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Robert P. Fender
2. T. Belloni
3. Ramesh Narayan
4. E. Koerding
5. J. E. McClintock
6. J. Homan
7. E. Gallo
8. S. Motta

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. Robert P. Fender
2. T. Belloni
3. E. Koerding
4. J. Homan
5. E. Gallo
6. S. Motta
7. Stéphane Corbel
8. Ramesh Narayan

Citations in the corpus

• Going with the Flow: Can the Base of Jets Subsume the Role of Compact Accretion Disk Coronae? (2005, background): “For instance, in the Galactic XRBsGX 339 4 and CygX-1, accretion without observable jets proceeds to accretion with discernible jets and back again every few years (Fender 2006; Pottschmidt et al. 2003; Gleissner et al. 2004b; Homan et al. 2005).”
• The 'universal' radio/X-ray flux correlation : the case study of the black hole GX 339-4 (2012, background): “Optically thin synchrotron emission from the compact jets may also play a role at high energy (Markoff, Falcke & Fender 2001; Homan et al. 2005; Russell et al. 2010; Laurent et al. 2011).”
• Refining the fundamental plane of accreting black holes (2006, methodology): “…of a LH state XRB is modeled using Comptonization (e.g. Sunyaev & Trümper 1979; Thorne & Price 1975), however, some models suggest that the compact jet may contribute to the X-ray emission or even dominate it (Markoff et al. 2001a; Markoff & Nowak 2004; Homan et al. 2005; Markoff et al. 2005).”
• Radiatively efficient accreting black holes in the hard state: the case study of H1743-322 (2011, background): “It was subsequently shown that this same correlation also holds between opticalinfrared (OIR) and X-ray fluxes (Homan et al. 2005; Russell et al. 2006, 2007; Coriat et al. 2009).”
• The evolution of the timing properties of the black-hole transient GX 339-4 during its 2002/2003 outburst (2005, unknown): “…H 1743–322 (Homan et al. 2005b) and possibly in 4U 1630–47 (Tomsick & Kaaret 2000), while typeA QPOs were observed in GX 339–4 (Nespoli et al. 2003), XTE J1859+226 (Casella et al. 2004), H 1743–322 (Homan et al. 2003b, 2005b), and possibly in 4U 1630–47 (Tomsick & Kaaret 2000; Dieters et al. 2000).”
• WATCHDOG: A COMPREHENSIVE ALL-SKY DATABASE OF GALACTIC BLACK HOLE X-RAY BINARIES (2015, background): “…Emelyanov et al. (2000), [46] Capitanio et al. (2005), [47] Miller et al. (2006c), [48] Kalemci et al. (2006), [49] McClintock et al. (2009), [50] Homan et al. (2005), [51] Capitanio et al. (2006), [52] Capitanio et al. (2009a), [53] Motta et al. (2010), [54] Chen et al. (2010), [55] Capitanio…”
• Rapid optical and X-ray timing observations of GX 339-4: multi-component optical variability in the low/hard state (2010, background): “19, we show the results of one of the lat st of these, by Maitra et al. (2009), in which a bright hard state outburst SED from 2002 reported by Homan et al. (2005) is modelled (their ‘Model 2’).”
• No evidence for black hole spin powering of jets in X-ray binaries (2010, methodology): “In addition to the radio measurements, the decrease in near-infrared jet emission at the transition to the soft X-ray state is also clearly observed, in some cases by up to a factor of 20 (Homan et al. 2005; Russell et al. 2006; see also Russell & Fender 2010).”
• Low-frequency oscillations in black holes: a spectral-timing approach to the case of GX 339-4 (2011, methodology): “…et al. (2001),11, Titarchuk & Osherovich (1999), Tagger & Pellat 1999. on the truncation radius and also on the optical depth of the inner hot flow that produces them, as well on the inclination of the system (see also Homan et al. 2005) and to the optical depth of the precessing inner hot flow.”
• Jets from black hole X-ray binaries: testing, refining and extending empirical models for the coupling to X-rays (2009, methodology): “Power spectra were constructed from high-time reolution data from the Proportional Counter Array (PCA), using most of the PCA energy range and following standard fast-fourier techniques (see e.g. Homan et al. 2005 for a detailed description).”
• Global optical/infrared-X-ray correlations in X-ray binaries: quantifying disc and jet contributions (2006, methodology): “The soft state could originate from a combination of X-ray reprocessing (as the OIR–X-ray relations suggest) and the viscous disc (e.g. Homan et al. 2005).”