High-density reflection spectroscopy of black hole X-ray binaries in the hard state

Abstract

We present a high-density relativistic reflection analysis of 21 spectra of six black hole X-ray binaries in the hard state with data from \textit{NuSTAR} and \textit{Swift}. We find that 76\% of the observations in our sample require a disk density higher than the 10${}^{15}$~cm${}^{-3}$ assumed in the previous reflection analysis. Compared with the measurements from active galactic nuclei, stellar mass black holes have higher disk densities. Our fits indicate that the inner disk radius is close to the innermost stable circular orbit in the hard state. The coronal temperatures are significantly lower than the prediction of a purely thermal plasma, which can be explained with a hybrid plasma model. If the disk density is fixed at 10${}^{15}$~cm${}^{-3}$, the disk ionization parameter would be overestimated while the inner disk radius is unaffected.

17 pages, 9 figures, accepted by ApJ

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• Proof of principle X-ray reflection mass measurement of the black hole in H1743-322
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• Measuring black hole spins with x-ray reflection spectroscopy: A GRMHD outlook
• Investigating the consistency of the shape and flux of X-ray reflection spectra in the hard state with an accretion disk reaching close to the black hole
• Modeling reflection spectra of super-Eddington X-ray sources
• Black hole spin estimation of XTE J2012+381 using simultaneous observations of Swift/XRT and NuSTAR
• Interaction between disk and extended corona in a general relativistic framework
• Accretion Geometry of Black Hole X-ray Binaries: Insights from X-ray Observations