Combined Spectral and Timing Analysis of the Black Hole Candidate MAXI J1659-152 Discovered by MAXI and Swift

Abstract

We report on X-ray spectral and timing results of the new black hole candidate (BHC) MAXI J1659-152 with the orbital period of 2.41 hours (shortest among BHCs) in the 2010 outburst from 65 Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observations and 8 simultaneous Swift and RXTE observations. According to the definitions of the spectral states in Remillard & McClintock (2006), most of the observations have been classified into the intermediate state. All the X-ray broadband spectra can be modeled by a multi-color disk plus a power-law with an exponential cutoff or a multi-color disk plus a Comptonization component. During the initial phase of the outburst, a high energy cutoff was visible at 30-40 keV. The innermost radius of the disk gradually decreased by a factor of more than 3 from the onset of the outburst and reached a constant value of 35 d_10 cos i^-1/2 km, where d_10 is the distance in units of 10 kpc and $i$ is the inclination. The type-C quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) frequency varied from 1.6 Hz to 7.3 Hz in association with a change of the innermost radius, while the innermost radius remained constant during the type-B QPO detections at 1.6-4.1 Hz. Hence, we suggest that the origin of the type-B QPOs is different from that of type-C QPOs, the latter of which would originate from the disk truncation radius. Assuming the constant innermost radius in the latter phase of the outburst as the innermost stable circular orbit, the black hole mass in MAXI J1659-152 is estimated to be 3.6-8.0 M_solar for a distance of 5.3-8.6 kpc and an inclination angle of 60-75 degrees.

27 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ

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• The 2003 Outburst of the X-ray Transient H 1743-322: Comparisons with the Black Hole Microquasar XTE J1550-564
• Swift J1753.5-0127: The Black Hole Candidate with the shortest orbital period

Cited by in corpus (30)

• WATCHDOG: A Comprehensive All-Sky Database of Galactic Black Hole X-ray Binaries
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• MAXI J1659-152: The shortest orbital period black-hole transient in outburst
• X-ray outbursts of low-mass X-ray binary transients observed in the RXTE era
• Estimation of Mass of the Black Hole Candidate MAXI J1659-152 using TCAF and POS Models
• Population Synthesis of Black Hole X-Ray Binaries
• Accretion Flow Dynamics of MAXI J1659-152 from the Spectral Evolution Study of its 2010 Outburst using the TCAF Solution
• The X-ray properties of the black hole transient MAXI J1659-152 in quiescence
• Broadband monitoring tracing the evolution of the jet and disk in the black hole candidate X-ray binary MAXI J1659-152
• Stronger Reflection from Black Hole Accretion Disks in Soft X-ray States
• Low-mass X-ray binaries from black-hole retaining globular clusters
• Discovery and state transitions of the new Galactic black hole candidate MAXI J1535-571
• Formation of Black Hole Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
• Delimiting the black hole mass in the X-ray transient MAXI J1659-152 with H$\alpha$ spectroscopy
• Possible range of viscosity parameter to trigger black hole candidates to exhibit different states of outbursts
• Spectral Evolution of a New X-ray Transient MAXI J0556-332 Observed by MAXI, Swift, and RXTE
• Peculiar disk behaviors of the black hole candidate MAXI J1348-630 in the hard state observed by Insight-HXMT and Swift
• A global study of Type B quasi-periodic oscillation in black hole X-ray binaries
• A new X-ray nova MAXI J1910-057 (= Swift J1910.2-0546) and mass-accretion inflow
• Selection Effects on the Orbital Period Distribution of Low Mass Black Hole X-ray Binaries
• MAXI/GSC Discovery of the Black Hole Candidate MAXI J1305-704
• Spectro-temporal studies of rapid transition of the quasi periodic oscillations in the black hole source H1743-322
• Energy dependent power spectral states and origin of aperiodic variability in black hole binaries
• Average bolometric corrections and optical to X-ray flux measurements as a function of accretion rate for X-ray binaries
• A 2-hr binary period for the black hole transient MAXI J0637-430
• The long-term optical evolution of the black hole candidate MAXI J1659-152
• Are spectral and timing correlations similar in different spectral states in black hole X-ray binaries?
• A retrograde spin of the black hole in MAXI J1659--152
• Swift X-ray Telescope study of the Black Hole Binary MAXI J1659-152: Variability from a two component accretion flow
• Estimating the spin of the black hole candidate MAXI J1659-152 with the X-ray continuum-fitting method