arXiv subjects

Thomas J. Maccarone

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas J. Maccarone.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Observational tests of the picture of disk accretion

In this chapter, I present a summary of observational tests of the basic picture of disk accretion. An emphasis is placed on tests relevant to black holes, but many of the fundamental results are drawn from studies of other classes of systems. Evidence is discussed for the basic structures of accretion flows. The cases of systems with and without accretion disks are discussed, as is the evidence that disks actually form. Also discussed are the hot spots where accretion streams impact the disks, and the boundary layers in the inner parts of systems where the accretors are not black holes. The nature of slow, large amplitude variability is discussed. It is shown that some of the key predictions of the classical thermal-viscous ionization instability model for producing outbursts are in excellent agreement with observational results. It is also show that there are systems whose outbursts are extremely difficult to explain without invoking variations in the rate of mass transfer from the donor star into the outer accretion disk, or tidally induced variations in the mass transfer rates. Finally, I briefly discuss recent quasar microlensing measurements which give truly independent constraints on the inner accretion geometry around black holes.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2013

Combined Analysis of Hubble and VLT Photometry of the Intermediate Mass Black Hole ESO 243-49 HLX-1

In this paper we present a combined analysis of data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Very Large Telescope (VLT), and Swift X-ray telescope (XRT) of the intermediate mass black hole ESO 243-49 HLX-1 that were taken 2 months apart between September and November 2010. Previous separate analyses of these data found that they were consistent with an irradiated accretion disc with contribution from either a very young or very old stellar population, and also indicated that the optical flux of the HLX-1 counterpart could be variable. Such variability could only be attributed to a varying accretion disc, so simultaneous analysis of all data sets should break the degeneracies in the model fits. We thus simultaneously fit the broad-band spectral energy distribution (SED) from near-infrared through to X-ray wavelengths of the two epochs of data with a model consisting of an irradiated accretion disc and a stellar population. We show that this combined analysis rules out an old stellar population, finding that the SED is dominated by emission from an accretion disc with moderate reprocessing in the outer disc around an intermediate mass black hole imbedded in a young (20 Myr) stellar cluster with a mass of 1E5 Msun. We also place an upper limit on the mass of an additional hidden old stellar population of 1E6 Msun. However, optical r-band observations of HLX-1 obtained with the Gemini-South telescope covering part of the decay from a later X-ray outburst are consistent with constant optical flux, indicating that the observed variability between the HST and VLT observations could be spurious caused by differences in the background subtraction applied to the two optical data sets. In this scenario the contribution of the stellar population, and thus the stellar mass of the cluster, may be higher (abridged).

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arXiv2013

A Radio-Selected Black Hole X-ray Binary Candidate in the Milky Way Globular Cluster M62

We report the discovery of a candidate stellar-mass black hole in the Milky Way globular cluster M62. We detected the black hole candidate, which we term M62-VLA1, in the core of the cluster using deep radio continuum imaging from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. M62-VLA1 is a faint source, with a flux density of 18.7 +/- 1.9 microJy at 6.2 GHz and a flat radio spectrum (alpha=-0.24 +/- 0.42, for S_nu = nu^alpha). M62 is the second Milky Way cluster with a candidate stellar-mass black hole; unlike the two candidate black holes previously found in the cluster M22, M62-VLA1 is associated with a Chandra X-ray source, supporting its identification as a black hole X-ray binary. Measurements of its radio and X-ray luminosity, while not simultaneous, place M62-VLA1 squarely on the well-established radio--X-ray correlation for stellar-mass black holes. In archival Hubble Space Telescope imaging, M62-VLA1 is coincident with a star near the lower red giant branch. This possible optical counterpart shows a blue excess, H alpha emission, and optical variability. The radio, X-ray, and optical properties of M62-VLA1 are very similar to those for V404 Cyg, one of the best-studied quiescent stellar-mass black holes. We cannot yet rule out alternative scenarios for the radio source, such as a flaring neutron star or background galaxy; future observations are necessary to determine whether M62-VLA1 is indeed an accreting stellar-mass black hole.

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arXiv2013

The biphase explained: understanding the asymmetries in coupled Fourier components of astronomical timeseries

We make the first attempt to estimate and interpret the biphase data for astronomical time series. The biphase is the phase of the bispectrum, which is the Fourier domain equivalent of the three-point correlation function. The bispectrum measures two key nonlinear properties of a time series -- its reversability in time, and the symmetry about the mean of its flux distribution -- for triplets of frequencies. Like other Fourier methods, it is especially valuable for working with time series which contain large numbers of cycles at the period of interest, but in which the signal-to-noise at a given frequency is small in any individual cycle, either because of measurement errors, or because of the contributions from signals at other frequencies. This has long been the case for studies of X-ray binaries, but is increasingly becoming true for stellar variability (both intrinsic and due to planetary transits) in the Kepler era. We attempt in this paper also to present some simple examples to give a more intuitive understanding of the meaning of the bispectrum to readers, in order to help to understand where it may be applicable in astronomy. In particular, we give illustrative examples of what biphases may be shown by common astrophysical time series such as pulsars, eclipsers, stars in the instability strip, and solar flares. We then discuss applications to the biphase data for understanding the shapes of the quasi-periodic oscillations of GRS 1915+105 and the coupling of the quasi-periodic oscillations to the power-law noise in that system.

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arXiv2013

The fading of two transient ULXs to below the stellar mass Eddington limit

We report new detections of the two transient ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in NGC 5128 from an ongoing series of Chandra observations. Both sources have previously been observed Lx (2-3)E39 erg/s, at the lower end of the ULX luminosity range. The new observations allow us to study these sources in the luminosity regime frequented by the Galactic black hole X-ray binaries (BH XBs). We present the recent lightcurves of both ULXs. 1RXH J132519.8-430312 (ULX1) was observed at Lx ~ 1E38 erg/s, while CXOU J132518.2-430304 (ULX2) declined to Lx ~ 2E37 erg/s and then lingered at this luminosity for hundreds of days. We show that a reasonable upper limit for both duty cycles is 0.2, with a lower limit of 0.12 for ULX2. This duty cycle is larger than anticipated for transient ULXs in old stellar populations. By fitting simple spectral models in an observation with ~50 counts we recover properties consistent with Galactic BH XBs, but inconclusive as to the spectral state. We utilise quantile analyses to demonstrate that the spectra are generally soft, and that in one observation the spectrum of ULX2 is inconsistent with a canonical hard state at >95% confidence. This is contrary to what would be expected of an accreting IMBH primary, which we would expect to be in the hard state at these luminosities. We discuss the paucity of transient ULXs discovered in early-type galaxies and excogitate explanations. We suggest that the number of transient ULXs scales with the giant and sub-giant populations, rather than the total number of XBs.

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arXiv2013

Very fast X-ray spectral variability in Cygnus X-1: Origin of the hard and soft-state emission components

The way in which the X-ray photon index, Γ, varies as a function of count rate is a strong diagnostic of the emission processes and emission geometry around accreting compact objects. Here we present the results from a study using a new, and simple, method designed to improve sensitivity to the measurement of the variability of Γ on very short time-scales. We have measured Γ in ~2 million spectra, extracted from observations with a variety of different accretion rates and spectral states, on time-scales as short as 16 ms for the high mass X-ray binary Cygnus X-1, and have cross-correlated these measurements with the source count rate. In the soft-state cross-correlation functions (CCFs) we find a positive peak at zero lag, stronger and narrower in the softer observations. Assuming that the X-rays are produced by Compton scattering of soft seed photons by high energy electrons in a corona, these results are consistent with Compton cooling of the corona by seed photons from the inner edge of the accretion disc, the truncation radius of which increases with increasing hardness ratio. The CCFs produced from the hard-state observations, however, show an anti-correlation which is most easily explained by variation in the energy of the electrons in the corona rather than in variation of the seed photon flux. The hard-state CCFs can be decomposed into a narrow anti-correlation at zero lag, which we tentatively associate with the effects of self-Comptonisation of cyclo-synchrotron seed photons in either a hot, optically thin accretion flow or the base of the jet, and a second, asymmetric component which we suggest is produced as a consequence of a lag between the soft and hard X-ray emission. The lag may be caused by a radial temperature/energy gradient in the Comptonising electrons combined with the inward propagation of accretion rate perturbations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2013

Spectral Properties of X-ray Binaries in Centaurus A

We present a spectral investigation of X-ray binaries in NGC 5128 (Cen A), using six 100 ks Chandra observations taken over two months in 2007. We divide our sample into thermally and non-thermally dominated states based on the behavior of the fitted absorption column, and present the spectral parameters of sources with L >2x10^37 erg/s. The majority of sources are consistent with being neutron star low mass X-ray binaries (NS LMXBs) and we identify three transient black hole (BH) LMXB candidates coincident with the dust lane, which is the remnant of a small late-type galaxy. Our results also provide tentative support for the apparent `gap' in the mass distribution of compact objects between ~2-5 Msol. We propose that BH LMXBs are preferentially found in the dust lane, and suggest this is because of the younger stellar population. The majority (~70-80%) of potential Roche-lobe filling donors in the Cen A halo are >12 Gyr old, while BH LMXBs require donors >1 Msol to produce the observed peak luminosities. This requirement for more massive donors may also explain recent results that claim a steepening of the X-ray luminosity function with age at Lx >= 5x10^38 erg/s for the XB population of early-type galaxies; for older stellar populations, there are fewer stars >1 Msol, which are required to form the more luminous sources.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Gas depletion in primordial globular clusters due to accretion onto stellar-mass black holes

(abridged) We consider the effect of stellar remnants on the interstellar medium of a massive star cluster following the initial burst of star formation. We argue that accretion onto stellar-mass black holes (BHs) is an effective mechanism for rapid gas depletion in clusters of all masses, as long as they contain progenitor stars more massive than \gtrsim 50\msun. This scenario is attractive for the progenitor systems of present-day massive globular clusters (GCs) which likely had masses M \gtrsim 10^7\msun. In such clusters, supernovae and stellar winds cannot provide a plausible explanation for the sudden removal of the primordial gas reservoir that is required to explain their complex chemical enrichment history. In order to consider different regimes in the gas accretion rate onto stellar-mass BHs, we consider both the Bondi-Hoyle and Eddington approximations. For either model, our results show that the gas can be significantly depleted within only a few tens of Myrs. This process will affect the distribution of BH masses, and may accelerate the dynamical decoupling of the BH population and, ultimately, their dynamical ejection. Moreover, the timescales for gas depletion are sufficiently short that the accreting BHs could significantly affect the chemistry of subsequent star formation episodes. The gas depletion times and final mass in BHs are sensitive to the assumed model for the accretion rate, and to the initial mass of the most massive BH which, in turn, is determined by the upper mass cut-off of the stellar IMF. Our results imply that the remnant accretion history can have an important bearing on the observed present-day cluster mass-to-light ratio. In particular, we show that an increase of the upper mass cut-off with decreasing metallicity could contribute to the observed anti-correlation between the mass-to-light ratio and the metallicity of GCs.

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arXiv2012

Are the very faint X-ray transients period gap systems?

We discuss a scenario for the very faint X-ray transients as X-ray binaries fed by winds from detached M-dwarf donors in binary stars within the "period gap" -- the range of periods where donor stars have become fully convective, and shrunken so that they no longer fill their Roche lobes, but have not yet re-attached due to the systems shrinking through gravitational radiation. This wind-fed detached binary scenario can reproduce the two key properties of the very faint X-ray transients -- their faintness, which defines them, and their relatively low duty cycle outbursts which require that they have low mean mass transfer rates. We discuss feasible observational tests of the scenario.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Spatially resolved spectroscopy of the globular cluster RZ 2109 and the nature of its black hole

We present optical HST/STIS spectroscopy of RZ 2109, a globular cluster in the elliptical galaxy NGC 4472. This globular cluster is notable for hosting an ultraluminous X-ray source as well as associated strong and broad [OIII] 4959, 5007 emission. We show that the HST/STIS spectroscopy spatially resolves the [OIII] emission in RZ 2109. While we are unable to make a precise determination of the morphology of the emission line nebula, the best fitting models all require that the [OIII] 5007 emission has a half light radius in the range 3-7 pc. The extended nature of the [OIII] 5007 emission is inconsistent with published models that invoke an intermediate mass black hole origin. It is also inconsistent with the ionization of ejecta from a nova in the cluster. The spatial scale of the nebula could be produced via the photoionization of a strong wind driven from a stellar mass black hole accreting at roughly its Eddington rate.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

Radio sources in the Chandra Galactic Bulge survey

We discuss radio sources in the Chandra Galactic Bulge survey region. By cross-matching the X-ray sources in this field with the NVSS archival data, we find 12 candidate matches. We present a classification scheme for radio/X-ray matches in surveys taken in or near the Galactic Plane, taking into account other multi-wavelength data. We show that none of the matches found here is likely to be due to coronal activity from normal stars because the radio to X-ray flux ratios are systematically too high. We show that one of the sources could be a radio pulsar, and that one could be a planetary nebula, but that the bulk of the sources are likely to be background active galactic nuclei (AGN), with many confirmed through a variety of approaches. Several of the AGN are bright enough in the near infrared (and presumably in the optical) to use as probes of the interstellar medium in the inner Galaxy.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

Limits on [OIII] 5007 emission from NGC4472's globular clusters: constraints on planetary nebulae and ultraluminous black hole X-ray binaries in globular clusters

We have searched for [OIII] 5007 emission in high resolution spectroscopic data from Flames/Giraffe VLT observations of 174 massive globular clusters (GCs) in NGC4472. No planetary nebulae (PNe) are observed in these clusters, constraining the number of PNe per bolometric luminosity, α<0.8*10^{-7}PN/L_{\odot}. This is significantly lower than the rate predicted from stellar evolution, if all stars produce PNe. Comparing our results to populations of PNe in galaxies, we find most galaxies have a higher αthan these GCs (more PNe per bolometric luminosity - though some massive early-type galaxies do have similarly low α). The low αrequired in these GCs suggests that the number of PNe per bolometric luminosity does not increase strongly with decreasing mass or metallicity of the stellar population. We find no evidence for correlations between the presence of known GC PNe and either the presence of low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) or the stellar interaction rates in the GCs. This, and the low αobserved, suggests that the formation of PNe may not be enhanced in tight binary systems. These data do identify one [OIII] emission feature, this is the (previously published) broad [OIII] emission from the cluster RZ 2109. This emission is thought to originate from the LMXB in this cluster, which is accreting at super-Eddington rates. The absence of any similar [OIII] emission from the other clusters favors the hypothesis that this source is a black hole LMXB, rather than a neutron star LMXB with significant geometric beaming of its X-ray emission.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

Jets from Galactic binaries

I present a brief review of the properties of jets from X-ray binaries, highlighting the disk-jet connection, in which there are strong correlations between X-ray and radio power for black holes and for neutron star in low/hard spectral states, and reduced emission in soft states. I discuss how some of the new "deviant" black hole systems which follow the relation normally found for neutron stars might fit into such a picture. I close by highlighting a few open questions which might be best addressed with soft gamma-ray observations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Novae from isolated white dwarfs as a source of helium for second generation stars in globular clusters

We explore the possible contribution of classical and recurrent novae from isolated white dwarfs accreting from the intracluster medium to the abundances of "second generation" globular cluster stellar populations. We show that under reasonable assumptions the helium abundances of clusters can be enhanced substantially by these novae and argue that novae should be considered as an important, and perhaps even dominant channel in the evolution of the intracluster medium. We also discuss a possible test for whether helium enhancement really is the cause of the multiple main sequences in globular clusters that is independent of the positions of stars in the color-magnitude diagram.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2011

Velocity Structure and Variability of [O III] Emission in Black Hole Host Globular Cluster RZ2109

We present a multi-facility study of the optical spectrum of the extragalactic globular cluster RZ2109, which hosts a bright black hole X-ray source. The optical spectrum of RZ2109 shows strong and very broad [O III]λλ4959,5007 emission in addition to the stellar absorption lines typical of a globular cluster. We use observations over an extended period of time to constrain the variability of these [O III] emission lines. We find that the equivalent width of the lines is similar in all of the datasets; the change in L[O III]λ5007 is \ltsim 10% between the first and last observations, which were separated by 467 days. The velocity profile of the line also shows no significant variability over this interval. Using a simple geometric model we demonstrate that the observed [O III]λ5007 line velocity structure can be described by a two component model with most of the flux contributed by a bipolar conical outflow of about 1,600 km/s, and the remainder from a Gaussian component with a FWHM of several hundred km/s.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2011

Testing stellar population synthesis models with Sloan Digital Sky Survey colors of M31's globular clusters

Accurate stellar population synthesis models are vital in understanding the properties and formation histories of galaxies. In order to calibrate and test the reliability of these models, they are often compared with observations of star clusters. However, relatively little work has compared these models in the ugriz filters, despite the recent widespread use of this filter set. In this paper, we compare the integrated colors of globular clusters in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with those predicted from commonly used simple stellar population (SSP) models. The colors are based on SDSS observations of M31's clusters and provide the largest population of star clusters with accurate photometry available from the survey. As such, it is a unique sample with which to compare SSP models with SDSS observations. From this work, we identify a significant offset between the SSP models and the clusters' g-r colors, with the models predicting colors which are too red by g-r\sim0.1. This finding is consistent with previous observations of luminous red galaxies in the SDSS, which show a similar discrepancy. The identification of this offset in globular clusters suggests that it is very unlikely to be due to a minority population of young stars. The recently updated SSP model of Maraston & Stromback better represents the observed g-r colors. This model is based on the empirical MILES stellar library, rather than theoretical libraries, suggesting an explanation for the g-r discrepancy.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

Probing the GC-LMXB connection in NGC 1399: a wide-field study with HST and Chandra

We present a wide field study of the Globular Clusters/Low Mass X-ray Binary (LMXB) connection in the giant elliptical NGC1399. The large FOV of the ACS/WFC, combined with the HST and Chandra high resolution, allow us to constrain the LMXB formation scenarios in elliptical galaxies. We confirm that NGC1399 has the highest LMXB fraction in GCs of all nearby elliptical galaxies studied so far, even though the exact value depends on galactocentric distance due to the interplay of a differential GC vs galaxy light distribution and the GC color dependence. In fact LMXBs are preferentially hosted by bright, red GCs out to $>5 R_{eff}$ of the galaxy light. The finding that GC hosting LMXBs follow the radial distribution of their parent GC population, argues against the hypothesis that the external dynamical influence of the galaxy affects LMXB formation in GCs. On the other hand field LMXBs closely match the host galaxy light, thus indicating that they are originally formed in situ and not inside GCs. We measure GC structural parameters, finding that the LMXB formation likelihood is influenced independently by mass, metallicity and GCs structural parameters. In particular the GC central density plays a major role in predicting which GC host accreting binaries. Finally our analysis shows that LMXBs in GCs are marginally brighter than those in the field, and in particular the only color-confirmed GC with $L_X>10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$ shows no variability, which may indicate a superposition of multiple LMXBs in these systems.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Cosmic recycling of millisecond pulsars

We compare the rotation rate of neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) with the orbital period of the binaries. We find that, while short orbital period LMXBs span a range of neutron star rotation rates, all the long period LMXBs have fast rotators. We also find that the rotation rates are highest for the systems with the highest mean mass accretion rates, as can be expected if the accretion rate correlates with the orbital period. We show that these properties can be understood by a balance between spin-up due to accretion and spin-down due to gravitational radiation. Our scenario indicates that the gravitational radiation emitted by these systems may be detectable by future ground-based gravitational wave detectors.

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