Search for chaos in neutron star systems: Is Cyg X-3 a black hole?

Abstract

The accretion disk around a compact object is a nonlinear general relativistic system involving magnetohydrodynamics. Naturally the question arises whether such a system is chaotic (deterministic) or stochastic (random) which might be related to the associated transport properties whose origin is still not confirmed. Earlier, the black hole system GRS 1915+105 was shown to be low dimensional chaos in certain temporal classes. However, so far such nonlinear phenomena have not been studied fairly well for neutron stars which are unique for their magnetosphere and kHz quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO). On the other hand, it was argued that the QPO is a result of nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic effects in accretion disks. If a neutron star exhibits chaotic signature, then what is the chaotic/correlation dimension? We analyze RXTE/PCA data of neutron stars Sco X-1 and Cyg X-2, along with the black hole Cyg X-1 and the unknown source Cyg X-3, and show that while Sco X-1 and Cyg X-2 are low dimensional chaotic systems, Cyg X-1 and Cyg X-3 are stochastic sources. Based on our analysis, we argue that Cyg X-3 may be a black hole.

arXiv comment9 pages including 6 figures; to appear in The Astrophysical Journal

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Determination of chaotic behaviour in time series generated by charged particle motion around magnetized Schwarzschild black holes
• Machine-assisted discovery of relationships in astronomy
• Nonlinear time series anaysis of the light curves from the black hole system GRS1915+105
• Is the Hemispheric Asymmetry of Monthly Sunspot Area an Irregular Process with Long-Term Memory?
• Revisiting Evidence of Chaos in X-ray Light Curves: The Case of GRS 1915+105
• Correlating nonlinear properties with spectral states of RXTE data: Possible observational evidences for four different accretion modes around compact objects
• Classification of Close Binary Stars Using Recurrence Networks
• Observational evidences for spinning black holes: A proof of general relativity for spacetime around rotating black holes
• A search for chaos in the optical light curve of a blazar: W2R 1926+42
• Correlating nonlinear time series and spectral properties of IGR J17091-3624: Is it similar to GRS 1915+105?