Systematic spectral analysis of GX 339-4: influence of Galactic background and reflection models

Abstract

Black hole X-ray binaries display large outbursts, during which their properties are strongly variable. We develop a systematic spectral analysis of the 3-40 keV RXTE/PCA data in order to study the evolution of these systems and apply it to GX 339-4. Using the low count rate observations, we provide a precise model of the Galactic background at GX 339-4's location and discuss its possible impact on the source spectral parameters. At higher fluxes, the use of a Gaussian line to model the reflection component can lead to the detection of a high-temperature disk, in particular in the high-hard state. We demonstrate that this component is an artifact arising from an incomplete modeling of the reflection spectrum.

6 pages, 3 figures, Proceeding of the XMM-Newton 2015 Science Workshop 'The Extremes of Black Hole Accretion', Accepted for publication in Astronomical Notes

References in corpus (4)

• X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
• X-ray reflected spectra from accretion disk models. III. A complete grid of ionized reflection calculations
• Revealing accretion onto black holes: X-ray reflection throughout three outbursts of GX 339-4
• Studying the X-ray hysteresis in GX 339-4: the disc and iron line over one decade

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• A unified accretion-ejection paradigm for black hole X-ray binaries. V. Low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations
• A unified accretion-ejection paradigm for black hole X-ray binaries. VI. Radiative efficiency and radio-X-ray correlation during four outbursts from GX339-4
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