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Article Dans Une Revue Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A Année : 2013

Long term variability of Cygnus X-1

K. Pottschmidt
  • Fonction : Auteur
M. Böck
  • Fonction : Auteur
M. A. Nowak
  • Fonction : Auteur
A. Bodaghee
  • Fonction : Auteur
M. Cadolle Bel
  • Fonction : Auteur
G. L. Case
  • Fonction : Auteur
S. B. Markoff
  • Fonction : Auteur
G. G. Pooley
  • Fonction : Auteur
R. E. Rothschild
  • Fonction : Auteur
J. A. Tomsick
  • Fonction : Auteur
C. A. Wilson-Hodge
  • Fonction : Auteur

Résumé

We present a scheme for determining the spectral state of the canonical black hole Cyg X-1 using data from previous and current X-ray all sky monitors (RXTE-ASM, Swift-BAT, MAXI, and Fermi-GBM). Determinations of the hard/intermediate and soft state agree to better than 10% between different monitors, facilitating the determination of the state and its context for any observation of the source, potentially over the lifetimes of different individual monitors. A separation of the hard and the intermediate states, which strongly differ in their spectral shape and short-term timing behavior, is only possible when data in the soft X-rays (<5 keV) are available. A statistical analysis of the states confirms the different activity patterns of the source (e.g., month- to year-long hard-state periods or phases during which numerous transitions occur). It also shows that the hard and soft states are stable, with the probability of Cyg X-1 remaining in a given state for at least one week to be larger than 85% in the hard state and larger than 75% in the soft state. Intermediate states are short lived, with a 50% probability that the source leaves the intermediate state within three days. Reliable detection of these potentially short-lived events is only possible with monitor data that have a time resolution better than 1 d.
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Dates et versions

cea-01135394 , version 1 (25-03-2015)

Identifiants

Citer

V. Grinberg, N. Hell, K. Pottschmidt, M. Böck, M. A. Nowak, et al.. Long term variability of Cygnus X-1. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2013, 554, pp.A88. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201321128⟩. ⟨cea-01135394⟩
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