A NICER look at the Aql X-1 hard state
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Author(s)
Bult, Peter
Arzoumanian, Zaven
Cackett, Edward M.
Guillot, Sebastien
Jaisawal, Gaurava K.
Keek, Laurens
Kenyon, Steve
Lamb, Frederick K.
Ludlam, Renee
Mahmoodifar, Simin
Date Issued
May 2018
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Citation
Bult, Peter, Zaven Arzoumanian, Edward M. Cackett, Deepto Chakrabarty, Keith C. Gendreau, Sebastien Guillot, Jeroen Homan, et al. “A NICER Look at the Aql X-1 Hard State.” The Astrophysical Journal 859, no. 1 (May 17, 2018): L1.
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Author's final manuscript
Abstract
We report on a spectral-timing analysis of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) Aql X-1 with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) on the International Space Station (ISS). Aql X-1 was observed with NICER during a dim outburst in 2017 July, collecting approximately 50 ks of good exposure. The spectral and timing properties of the source correspond to that of a (hard) extreme island state in the atoll classification. We find that the fractional amplitude of the low-frequency (<0.3 Hz) band-limited noise shows a dramatic turnover as a function of energy: it peaks at 0.5 keV with nearly 25% rms, drops to 12% rms at 2 keV, and rises to 15% rms at 10 keV. Through the analysis of covariance spectra, we demonstrate that band-limited noise exists in both the soft thermal emission and the power-law emission. Additionally, we measure hard time lags, indicating the thermal emission at 0.5 keV leads the power-law emission at 10 keV on a timescale of ∼100 ms at 0.3 Hz to ∼10 ms at 3 Hz. Our results demonstrate that the thermal emission in the hard state is intrinsically variable, and is driving the modulation of the higher energy power-law. Interpreting the thermal spectrum as disk emission, we find that our results are consistent with the disk propagation model proposed for accretion onto black holes.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/AAC2E2
