Constraining black hole spins with low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations in soft states

Abstract

Black hole X-ray transients show a variety of state transitions during their outburst phases, characterized by changes in their spectral and timing properties. In particular, power density spectra (PDS) show quasi periodic oscillations (QPOs) that can be related to the accretion regime of the source. We looked for type-C QPOs in the disc-dominated state (i.e. the high soft state) and in the ultra-luminous state in the RXTE archival data of 12 transient black hole X-ray binaries known to show QPOs during their outbursts. We detected 6 significant QPOs in the soft state that can be classified as type-C QPOs. Under the assumption that the accretion disc in disc-dominated states extends down or close to the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) and that type-C QPOs would arise at the inner edge of the accretion flow, we use the relativistic precession model (RPM) to place constraints on the black hole spin. We were able to place lower limits on the spin value for all the 12 sources of our sample while we could place also an upper limit on the spin for 5 sources.

10 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (10)

• X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
• Modelling the behaviour of accretion flows in X-ray binaries
• Relativistic X-ray Lines from the Inner Accretion Disks Around Black Holes
• A quasi-periodic modulation of the iron line centroid energy in the black hole binary H 1743-322
• Geometrical constraints on the origin of timing signals from black holes
• A systematic look at the Very High and Low/Hard state of GX 339-4: Constraining the black hole spin with a new reflection model
• The 2003 Outburst of the X-ray Transient H 1743-322: Comparisons with the Black Hole Microquasar XTE J1550-564
• On the masses and evolutionary status of the black hole binary GX 339-4. A twin system of XTE J1550-564?
• Spectral and Fourier analyses of X-ray QPO in accreting black holes
• Solutions to the relativistic precession model

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Reverberation in tidal disruption events: dust echoes, coronal emission lines, multi-wavelength cross-correlations, and QPOs
• On the different flavours of Lense-Thirring precession around accreting stellar mass black holes
• Physical origin of the nonphysical spin evolution of MAXI J1820+070
• Low Frequency Quasi Periodic Oscillations and Shocks in Accretion onto Black Hole
• Very low-frequency oscillations from the 11 Hz pulsar in Terzan 5: frame-dragging back on the table