Unsupervised spectral decomposition of X-ray binaries with application to GX 339-4

Abstract

In this paper we explore unsupervised spectral decomposition methods for distinguishing the effect of different spectral components for a set of consecutive spectra from an X-ray binary. We use well-established linear methods for the decomposition, namely principal component analysis, independent component analysis and non-negative matrix factorisation (NMF). Applying these methods to a simulated dataset consisting of a variable multicolour disc black body and a cutoff power law, we find that NMF outperforms the other two methods in distinguishing the spectral components. In addition, due the non-negative nature of NMF, the resulting components may be fitted separately, revealing the evolution of individual parameters. To test the NMF method on a real source, we analyse data from the low-mass X-ray binary GX 339-4 and found the results to match those of previous studies. In addition, we found the inner radius of the accretion disc to be located at the innermost stable circular orbit in the intermediate state right after the outburst peak. This study shows that using unsupervised spectral decomposition methods results in detecting the separate component fluxes down to low flux levels. Also, these methods provide an alternative way of detecting the spectral components without performing actual spectral fitting, which may prove to be practical when dealing with large datasets.

arXiv comment12 pages, 13 figures

References in corpus (31)

• Advection-Dominated Accretion: A Self-Similar Solution
• Towards a unified model for black hole X-ray binary jets
• Going with the flow: can the base of jets subsume the role of compact accretion disk coronae?
• A jet model for the broadband spectrum of XTE J1118+480: Synchrotron emission from radio to X-rays in the Low/Hard spectral state
• Slicing Through Multicolor Space: Galaxy Redshifts From Broadband Photometry
• GX 339-4: the distance, state transitions, hysteresis and spectral correlations
• A Long, Hard Look at the Low-Hard State in Accreting Black Holes
• The "universal" radio/X-ray flux correlation : the case study of the black hole GX 339-4
• Advection-Dominated Accretion and Black Hole Event Horizons
• Dynamical Evidence for a Black Hole in GX 339-4
• New Evidence for Black Hole Event Horizons from Chandra
• Low frequency oscillations in black holes: a spectral-timing approach to the case of GX 339-4
• A long, hard look at MCG-6-30-15 with XMM-Newton II: detailed EPIC analysis and modelling
• Black hole accretion disks in the canonical low-hard state
• Toward a Unified View of Black Hole High Energy States
• Corona, Jet, and Relativistic Line Models for Suzaku/RXTE/Chandra-HETG Observations of the Cygnus X-1 Hard State
• Coronal--Temporal Correlations in GX339-4: Hysteresis, Possible Reflection Changes, and Implications for ADAFs
• On the masses and evolutionary status of the black hole binary GX 339-4. A twin system of XTE J1550-564?
• Multiwavelength Spectrum of the Black Hole XTE J1118+480 in Quiescence
• Evidence for a compact jet dominating the broadband spectrum of the black hole accretor XTE J1550-564
• Broadband X-ray Spectra of GX 339-4 and the Geometry of Accreting Black Holes in the Hard State
• Ensemble Learning Independent Component Analysis of Normal Galaxy Spectra
• Bimodal spectral variability of Cygnus X-1 in an intermediate state
• Spectral variability of GX 339-4 in a hard-to-soft state transition
• Overview of an Extensive Multi-wavelength Study of GX 339-4 during the 2010 Outburst
• Studying the X-ray hysteresis in GX 339-4: the disc and iron line over one decade
• Spectral hardening as a viable alternative to disc truncation in black hole state transitions
• Principal Component Analysis of MCG--6-30-15 with XMM-Newton
• Classification and analysis of emission-line galaxies using mean field independent component analysis
• 2006 May-July Major Radio Flare episodes in Cygnus X-3: spectro-timing analysis of the X-ray data
• Spectral properties of transitions between soft and hard state in GX 339-4

Cited by in corpus (9)

• A review of unsupervised learning in astronomy
• Probing the effects of a thermonuclear X-ray burst on the neutron star accretion flow with NuSTAR
• The radio/X-ray correlation in X-ray binaries - Insights from a hard X-ray perspective
• Interplay of spectral components in timing properties of accreting compact objects
• Variable spreading layer in 4U 1608-52 during thermonuclear X-ray bursts in the soft state
• Evidence of spreading layer emission in thermonuclear superbursts
• X-ray Variability in the Symbiotic Binary RT Cru: Principal Component Analysis
• Relativistic Reflection Modeling in AGN and Related Variability from PCA: A Brief Review
• IGR J12580+0134: The Nearest Tidal Disruption Event and its Faint Resurrection