Following the 2008 outburst decay of the black hole candidate H 1743-322 in X-ray and radio

P. G Jonker; J Miller-Jones; J Homan; E Gallo; M Rupen; J Tomsick; R. P Fender; P Kaaret; D. T. H Steeghs; M. A. P Torres; R Wijnands; S Markoff; W. H. G Lewin

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15717.x

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Following the 2008 outburst decay of the black hole candidate H 1743-322 in X-ray and radio

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Following the 2008 outburst decay of the black hole candidate H 1743-322 in X-ray and radio

P. G Jonker, J Miller-Jones, J Homan, E Gallo, M Rupen, J Tomsick, R. P Fender, P Kaaret, D. T. H Steeghs, M. A. P Torres, …

Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol.401(2), pp.1255-1263

01/11/2010

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15717.x

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Abstract

In this paper, we report on radio (Very Large Array and Austrialian Telescope Compact Array) and X-ray (RXTE, Chandra and Swift) observations of the outburst decay of the transient black hole candidate H 1743-322 in early 2008. We find that the X-ray light curve followed an exponential decay, levelling off towards its quiescent level. The exponential decay time-scale is ≈4 days and the quiescent flux corresponds to a luminosity of formulaerg s−1. This together with the relation between quiescent X-ray luminosity and orbital period reported in the literature suggests that H 1743-322 has an orbital period longer than ≈10 h. Both the radio and X-ray light curve show evidence for flares. The radio–X-ray correlation can be well described by a power-law with index ≈0.18. This is much lower than the index of ≈0.6–0.7 found for the decay of several black hole transients before. The radio spectral index measured during one of the radio flares while the source is in the low–hard state is −0.5 ± 0.15, which indicates that the radio emission is optically thin. This is unlike what has been found before in black hole sources in the low–hard state. We attribute the radio flares and the low index for the radio–X-ray correlation to the presence of shocks downstream the jet flow, triggered by ejection events earlier in the outburst. We find no evidence for a change in X-ray power-law spectral index during the decay, although the relatively high extinction of NH≈ 2.3 × 1022 cm−2 limits the detected number of soft photons and thus the accuracy of the spectral fits.

accretion

accretion discs

binaries

stars: individual: H 1743-322

X-rays: binaries

Details

Title: Subtitle: Following the 2008 outburst decay of the black hole candidate H 1743-322 in X-ray and radio
Creators: P. G Jonker - Space Research Organisation Netherlands
J Miller-Jones - NRAO Headquarters, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
J Homan - Vassar College
E Gallo - Vassar College
M Rupen - NRAO, Array Operations Center, 1003 Lopezville Road, Socorro, NM 87801, USA
J Tomsick - University of California, Berkeley
R. P Fender - University of Southampton
P Kaaret - University of Iowa
D. T. H Steeghs - Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian
M. A. P Torres - Harvard University
R Wijnands - University of Amsterdam
S Markoff - University of Amsterdam
W. H. G Lewin - Vassar College
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol.401(2), pp.1255-1263
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15717.x
ISSN: 0035-8711
eISSN: 1365-2966
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Language: English
Date published: 01/11/2010
Academic Unit: Physics and Astronomy
Record Identifier: 9984199686002771

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