arXiv subjects

Sergei A. Trushkin

Publications and source records attributed to Sergei A. Trushkin.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Variability of X-ray polarization of Cyg X-1

We present the results of a three-year X-ray, optical, and radio polarimetric monitoring campaign of the prototypical black hole X-ray binary Cyg X-1, conducted from 2022 to 2024. The X-ray polarization of Cyg X-1 was measured 13 times with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), covering both hard and soft spectral states. The X-ray polarization degree (PD) in the hard state was found to be $\approx4.0\%$, roughly twice as high as in the soft state, where it was around $2.2\%$. In both states, a statistically significant increase of PD with the energy was found. Moreover, a linear relation between PD and spectral hardness suggests a gradual and continuous evolution of the polarization properties, rather than an abrupt change of polarization production mechanism between states. The polarization angle (PA) was independent of the spectral state and showed no trend with the photon energy. The X-ray PA is well aligned with the orientation of the radio jet, as well as the optical and radio PAs. We find significant orbital changes of PA in the hard state, which we attribute to scattering of X-ray emission at intrabinary structure. No significant superorbital variability in PD or PA was found at the period $P_{\rm{so}}$ = 294 d. We also find no correlation between the X-ray and optical polarization; if any, there is a long-term anti-correlation between the X-ray PD and the radio PD.

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arXiv2024

An IXPE-Led X-ray Spectro-Polarimetric Campaign on the Soft State of Cygnus X-1: X-ray Polarimetric Evidence for Strong Gravitational Lensing

We present the first X-ray spectropolarimetric results for Cygnus X-1 in its soft state from a campaign of five IXPE observations conducted during 2023 May-June. Companion multiwavelength data during the campaign are likewise shown. The 2-8 keV X-rays exhibit a net polarization degree PD=1.99%+/-0.13% (68% confidence). The polarization signal is found to increase with energy across IXPE's 2-8 keV bandpass. The polarized X-rays exhibit an energy-independent polarization angle of PA=-25.7+/-1.8 deg. East of North (68% confidence). This is consistent with being aligned to Cyg X-1's AU-scale compact radio jet and its pc-scale radio lobes. In comparison to earlier hard-state observations, the soft state exhibits a factor of 2 lower polarization degree, but a similar trend with energy and a similar (also energy-independent) position angle. When scaling by the natural unit of the disk temperature, we find the appearance of a consistent trendline in the polarization degree between soft and hard states. Our favored polarimetric model indicates Cyg X-1's spin is likely high (a* above ~0.96). The substantial X-ray polarization in Cyg X-1's soft state is most readily explained as resulting from a large portion of X-rays emitted from the disk returning and reflecting off the disk surface, generating a high polarization degree and a polarization direction parallel to the black hole spin axis and radio jet. In IXPE's bandpass, the polarization signal is dominated by the returning reflection emission. This constitutes polarimetric evidence for strong gravitational lensing of X-rays close to the black hole.

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arXiv2024

Tracking the X-ray Polarization of the Black Hole Transient Swift J1727.8-1613 during a State Transition

We report on an observational campaign on the bright black hole X-ray binary Swift J1727.8$-$1613 centered around five observations by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). These observations track for the first time the evolution of the X-ray polarization of a black hole X-ray binary across a hard to soft state transition. The 2--8 keV polarization degree decreased from $\sim$4\% to $\sim$3\% across the five observations, but the polarization angle remained oriented in the North-South direction throughout. Based on observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), we find that the intrinsic 7.25 GHz radio polarization aligns with the X-ray polarization. Assuming the radio polarization aligns with the jet direction (which can be tested in the future with higher spatial resolution images of the jet), our results imply that the X-ray corona is extended in the disk plane, rather than along the jet axis, for the entire hard intermediate state. This in turn implies that the long ($\gtrsim$10 ms) soft lags that we measure with the Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) are dominated by processes other than pure light-crossing delays. Moreover, we find that the evolution of the soft lag amplitude with spectral state does not follow the trend seen for other sources, implying that Swift J1727.8$-$1613 is a member of a hitherto under-sampled sub-population.

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arXiv2023

Discovery of X-ray Polarization from the Black Hole Transient Swift J1727.8-1613

We report the first detection of the X-ray polarization of the bright transient Swift J1727.8-1613 with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. The observation was performed at the beginning of the 2023 discovery outburst, when the source resided in the bright hard state. We find a time- and energy-averaged polarization degree of 4.1%+/-0.2% and a polarization angle of 2.2+/-1.3 degrees (errors at 68% confidence level; this translates to about 20-sigma significance of the polarization detection). This finding suggests that the hot corona emitting the bulk of the detected X-rays is elongated, rather than spherical. The X-ray polarization angle is consistent with that found in sub-mm wavelengths. Since the sub-mm polarization was found to be aligned with the jet direction in other X-ray binaries, this indicates that the corona is elongated orthogonal to the jet.

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arXiv2016

Fast launch speeds in radio flares, from a new determination of the intrinsic motions of SS 433's jet bolides

We present new high-resolution, multi-epoch, VLBA radio images of the Galactic microquasar SS 433. We are able to observe plasma knots in the milliarcsecond-scale jets more than 50 days after their launch. This unprecedented baseline in time allows us to determine the bulk launch speed of the radio-emitting plasma during a radio flare, using a new method which we present here, and which is completely independent of optical spectroscopy. We also apply this method to an earlier sequence of 39 short daily VLBA observations, which cover a period in which SS 433 moved from quiescence into a flare. In both datasets we find, for the first time at radio wavebands, clear evidence that the launch speeds of the milliarcsecond-scale jets rise as high as 0.32c during flaring episodes. By comparing these images of SS 433 with photometric radio monitoring from the RATAN telescope, we explore further properties of these radio flares.

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arXiv2016

The Accretion Flow - Discrete Ejection Connection in GRS 1915+105

The microquasar GRS~1915+105 is known for its spectacular discrete ejections. They occur unexpectedly, thus their inception escapes direct observation. It has been shown that the X-ray flux increases in the hours leading up to a major ejection. In this article, we consider the serendipitous interferometric monitoring of a modest version of a discrete ejection described in Reid et al. (2014) that would have otherwise escaped detection in daily radio light curves. The observation begins $\sim 1$ hour after the onset of the ejection, providing unprecedented accuracy on the estimate of the ejection time. The astrometric measurements allow us to determine the time of ejection as $\rm{MJD}\, 56436.274^{+0.016}_{-0.013}$, i.e., within a precision of 41 minutes (95\% confidence). Just like larger flares, we find that the X-ray luminosity increases in last 2 - 4 hours preceding ejection. Our finite temporal resolution indicates that this elevated X-ray flux persists within $21.8^{+22.6}_{-19.1}$ minutes of the ejection with 95\% confidence, the highest temporal precision of the X-ray - superluminal ejection connection to date. This observation provides direct evidence that the physics that launches major flares occurs on smaller scales as well (lower radio flux and shorter ejection episodes). The observation of a X-ray spike prior to a discrete ejection, although of very modest amplitude suggests that the process linking accretion behavior to ejection is general from the smallest scales to high luminosity major superluminal flares.

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arXiv2014

Evidence of Elevated X-Ray Absorption Before and During Major Flare Ejections in GRS 1915+105

We present time resolved X-ray spectroscopy of the microquasar GRS1915+105 with the MAXI observatory in order to study the accretion state just before and during the ejections associated with its major flares. Radio monitoring with the RATAN-600 radio telescope from 4.8 - 11.2 GHz has revealed two large steep spectrum major flares in the first eight months of 2013. Since, the RATAN receives one measurement per day, we cannot determine the jet forming time without more information. Fortunately, this is possible since a distinct X-ray light curve signature that occurs preceding and during major ejections has been determined in an earlier study. The X-ray luminosity spikes to very high levels in the hours before ejection then becomes variable (with a nearly equal X-ray luminosity when averaged over the duration of the ejection) during a brief 3 to 8 hour ejection process. By comparing this X-ray behavior to MAXI light curves, we can estimate the beginning and end of the ejection episode of the strong 2013 flares to within $\sim$3 hours. Using this estimate in conjunction with time resolved spectroscopy from the data in the MAXI archives allows us to deduce that the X-ray absorbing hydrogen column density increases significantly in the hours preceding the ejections and remains elevated during the ejections responsible for the major flares. This finding is consistent with an out-flowing wind or enhanced accretion at high latitudes.

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arXiv2011

The 2010 May Flaring Episode of Cygnus X-3 in Radio, X-Rays, and γ-Rays

In 2009, Cygnus X-3 (Cyg X-3) became the first microquasar to be detected in the GeV γ-ray regime, via the satellites Fermi and AGILE. The addition of this new band to the observational toolbox holds promise for building a more detailed understanding of the relativistic jets of this and other systems. We present a rich dataset of radio, hard and soft X-ray, and γ-ray observations of Cyg X-3 made during a flaring episode in 2010 May. We detect a ~3-d softening and recovery of the X-ray emission, followed almost immediately by a ~1-Jy radio flare at 15 GHz, followed by a 4.3σ γ-ray flare (E > 100 MeV) ~1.5 d later. The radio sampling is sparse, but we use archival data to argue that it is unlikely the γ-ray flare was followed by any significant unobserved radio flares. In this case, the sequencing of the observed events is difficult to explain in a model in which the γ-ray emission is due to inverse Compton scattering of the companion star's radiation field. Our observations suggest that other mechanisms may also be responsible for γ-ray emission from Cyg X-3.

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arXiv2010

Understanding Cygnus X-3 Through Multi-Wavelength Studies

Cygnus X-3 is a unique microquasar which shows X-ray state changes, strong radio emission, and relativistic jets. It is also an unusual X-ray binary with the mass-donating companion being a high mass star Wolf-Rayet but the orbital modulation (as inferred from X-ray emission) is only 4.8 hours, a value more common in low-mass systems. It has recently been shown by AGILE and Fermi that Cygnus X-3, is a transient gamma-ray source (>100 MeV). To understand the environment, nature, and behavior of Cygnus X-3 multi-wavelength observations are necessary. In this proceedings we present the results achieved so far from multi-wavelength campaigns.

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arXiv2009

Anti-Correlation of the Near-Infrared and X-Ray Variations of the Microquasar GRS 1915+105 in Soft State

We report detailed, long term near-infrared (NIR) light curves of GRS 1915+105 in 2007-2008, covering its long "soft state" for the first time. From our NIR monitoring and the X-ray data of the All Sky Monitor (ASM) onboard Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), we discovered that the NIR flux dropped by > 1 mag during short X-ray flares with a time-scale of days. With the termination of the soft state, the H-Ks color reddened and the anti-correlation pattern was broken. The observed H-Ks color variation suggests that the dominant NIR source was an accretion disk during the soft state. The short X-ray flares during the soft state were associated with spectral hardening in X-rays and increasing radio emission indicating jet ejection. The temporal NIR fading during the X-ray flares, hence, implies a sudden decrease of the contribution of the accretion disk when the jet is ejected.

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arXiv2008

Flaring variability of Microquasars

We discuss flaring variability of radio emission of microquasars, measured in monitoring programs with the RATAN-600 radio telescope. We carried out a multi-frequency (1-30 GHz) daily monitoring of the radio flux variability of the microquasars SS433, GRS1915+105, and Cyg X-3 during the recent sets in 2005-2007. A lot of bright short-time flares were detected from GRS 1915+105 and they could be associated with active X-ray events. In January 2006 we detected a drop down of the quiescent fluxes from Cyg X-3 (from 100 to $\sim$20 mJy), then the 1 Jy-flare was detected on 2 February 2006 after 18 days of quenched radio emission. The daily spectra of the flare in the maximum were flat from 2 to 110 GHz, using the quasi-simultaneous observations at 110 GHz with the RT45m telescope and the NMA millimeter array of NRO in Japan. Several bright radio flaring events (1-15 Jy) followed during the continuing state of very variable and intensive 1-12 keV X-ray emission ($\sim$0.5 Crab), which was monitored in the RXTE ASM program. Swift/BAT ASM hard X-ray fluxes correlated strongly with flaring radio data. The various spectral and temporal characteristics of the light curves from the microquasars could be determined from such comparison. We conclude that monitoring of the flaring radio emission is a good tracer of jet activity X-ray binaries.

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arXiv2008

Long-term multi-frequency monitoring of microquasars

We discuss the results of the radio studies of the X-ray binaries with relativistic jets. We carried out a multi-frequency (1-30 GHz) daily monitoring of the radio flux variability of the microquasars SS433, GRS1915+105, and Cyg X-3 with the RATAN-600 radio telescope during the recent sets from 1 November 2006 to 31 August 2008. From December 2005 radio emission of Cyg X-3 after four years relatively quiescent levels (100-200 mJy) dropped down to $\sim$20 mJy, and then we detected a lot of bright radio flaring events (1-20 Jy) followed the very variable (from 0 to 0.5 crabs) 15-50 keV X-ray emission, which was monitored in the Swift/BAT ASM program. Again from December 2007 to March 2008 we have daily measured almost quiescent fluxes from Cyg X-3 but in April 2008 a bright radio flare with clear synchrotron self-absorption was detected. We detected several bright short-term flares from GRS 1915+105 which could be associated with active soft X-ray events. In intense measurements of SS433 fluxes (often mutually with X-ray and optical observations) we detected massive ejections during powerful flares. We discuss the various spectral and temporal characteristics of the light curves from the microquasars. Monitoring of the flaring radio emission is a good tracer of jet activity X-ray binaries.

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arXiv2003

Radio spectra of the WMAP catalog sources

Compiled radio spectra are presented for 208 extragalactic sources from the catalog created from the WMAP satellite all-sky survey data in a range of 23-94 GHz taken during the first year of its operation in orbit. 205 out of 208 WMAP sources are reliably identified with radio sources from other catalogs, including also four out of five sources unidentified by the WMAP survey authors. We have found 203 WMAP sources to have optical identification: 141 quasars, 29 galaxies, 19 active galactic nuclei, 19 BL Lac-type objects and one planetary nebula, IC418. Simultaneous measurements of flux densities for 26 sources at five frequencies, 2.3, 3.9, 7.7, 11.2 and 21.7 GHz, were made with the radio telescope RATAN-600 in 2003 March. 25 sources were detected at all the frequencies, and only one, WMAP0517-0546, unidentified in other catalogs was not detected in our observations and is likely to be spurious. Using the database CATS we found a large number of identifications in different radio catalogs and in several long-term monitoring programs (GBI, UMRAO, SEST, IRAM, and others). The total number of flux density measurements that we collected in the frequency range from 10 MHz to 245 GHz for the identified WMAP sources is over 206,000, varying from 10-20 points for some southern sources to a few thousand points for sources from long-term monitorings. A considerable number of WMAP sources are variable on time scales from hours to dozens of years, nevertheless, the obtained integral spectra, including measurements in different years, may be of particular interest because these bright sources have been studied for more than forty years. The general character of the spectrum (power, flat, with a turnovers at low or high frequencies) of the WMAP sources remains unchanged.

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arXiv2001

Optical and Radio observations of the bright GRB010222 afterglow: evidence for rapid synchrotron cooling?

We report photometric observations of the optical afterglow of GRB010222 in V,R and I passbands carried out at UPSO, Naini Tal between 22-27 Feb 2001. We determine CCD Johnson BV and Cousins RI photometric magnitudes for 31 stars in the field of GRB010222 and use them to calibrate our measurements as well as other published BVRI photometric magnitudes of GRB010222 afterglow. We construct the light curve in V,R,I passbands and from a broken power-law fit determine the decay indices of 0.74+/-0.05 and 1.35+/-0.04 before and after the break at 0.7 days. Using reported X-ray flux measurements at 0.35 and 9.13 days after the burst we determine X-ray to opt/IR spectral index of 0.61+/-0.02 and 0.75+/-0.02 on these two days. We also report upper limits to the radio flux obtained from the RATAN-600 telescope and the GMRT, and millimeter-wave upper limits obtained from the Plateau de Bure Millimeter interferometer. We argue that the synchrotron cooling frequency is below the optical band for most of the observing period. We also estimate an initial jet opening angle of about 2.0n^(1/8) degrees, where n is the number density of the ambient medium.

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arXiv1999

Radio spectra of complete sample of galactic supernova remnants

We present compiled radio continuum spectra for 200 Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs) from 220 known and included in Green's (1998) catalog. These spectra include most of the measurements available in literature, as well as multi-frequency measurements of nearly 120 SNRs with the RATAN-600 radio telescope in 1, 2 and 4 Galactic quadrants and from the Galactic plane survey at 960 and 3900 MHz. The measurements have been placed on the same absolute flux density scale. The presented compilation has given a possibility of plotting quite accurate spectra with the thermal plasma free-free absorption in fitting the spectra accounted for. An analysis of 190 spectra showed that 70 SNRs (37%) have clear low-frequency turnover caused, apparently, by absorption in the thermal foreground of the Milky Way. We did not find considerable correlation between spectral index and Galactic coordinates $l$ and $b$ of SNRs. The turnover frequencies do not correlate with $l$ and $b$.

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arXiv1996

The CATS database to operate with astrophysical catalogs

A public database of astrophysical (radio and other) catalogs (CATS), has been created at Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). It allows to execute a number of operations in batch or interactive mode, e.g. to obtain a list and parameters of catalogs, to extract objects from one or several catalogs by various selection criteria, perform cross-identification of different catalogs, or construct radio spectra of selected sources. Access to CATS is provided in both dialog mode (non-graphics), and graphics mode (hypertext, via Tcl/Tk or possibly JAVA in future). The result of CATS operation can be sent to the user in tabular and graphical formats.

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