The Physical Interpretation of X-ray Phase Lags and Coherence: RXTE Observations of Cygnus X--1 as a Case Study

Abstract

There have been a number of recent spectral models that have been successful in reproducing the observed X-ray spectra of galactic black hole candidates (GBHC). However, there still exists controversy over such issues as: what are the sources of hard radiation, what is the system's geometry, is the accretion efficient or inefficient, etc. A potentially powerful tool for distinguishing among these possibilities, made possible by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), is the variability data, especially the observed phase lags and variability coherence. These data, in conjunction with spectral modeling, have the potential of determining physical sizes of the system, as well as placing strong constraints on both Compton corona and advection models. As an example, we present RXTE variability data of Cygnus X-1

To Appear in the Proceedings of the Symposium "The Active X-ray Sky", held October 21-24, 1997, Rome

References in corpus (3)

• Temporal Properties of Cygnus X-1 During the Spectral Transitions
• Self-Consistent Thermal Accretion Disk Corona Models for Compact Objects: II. Application to Cygnus X-1
• Self-Consistent Thermal Accretion Disk Corona Models for Compact Objects: I. Properties of the Corona and the Spectrum of Escaping Radiation

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Stingray: A Modern Python Library For Spectral Timing
• Long Term Variability of Cyg X-1, II. The rms-Flux Relation
• Modelling hard and soft state of Cygnus X-1 with propagating mass accretion rate fluctuations
• The comptonizing medium of the black-hole X-ray binary MAXI~J1535$-$571 through type-C quasi-periodic oscillations
• The role of outflows in black-hole X-ray binaries