We have analyzed the observations of SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 during giant flares made with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer.We have studied the pulsating tail after the initial spike and decomposed the pulse waveform into separate components of sub-pulses.We found evidence for phase shifts of those sub-pulses.This is probably due to rapid geometrical changes in the magnetic field of the neutron star during giant flares.The phase shifts could be used to constrain the geometry of the magnetic field.
XING Yi & YU WenFei Shanghai Astronomical Observatory,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Shanghai 200030,China
We have studied X-ray spectral state transitions that can be seen in the long- term monitoring light curves of bright X-ray binaries from the All-Sky Monitor （ASM） onboard the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer （RXTE） and the Burst Alert Telescope （BAT） onboard Swift during a period of five years from 2005 to 2010. We have applied a program to automatically identify the hard-to-soft （H-S） spectral state transitions in the bright X-ray binaries monitored by the ASM and the BAT. In total, we identified 128 hard-to-soft transitions, of which 59 occurred after 2008. We also determined the transition fluxes and the peak fluxes of the following soft states, updated the measurements of the luminosity corresponding to the H-S transition and the peak luminosity of the following soft state in about 30 bright persistent and transient black hole and neutron star binaries following Yu ＆Yan, and found the luminosity correlation and the luminosity range of spectral transitions in data between 2008-2010 are about the same as those derived from data before 2008. This further strengthens the idea that the luminosity at which the H-S spectral transition occurs in the Galactic X-ray binaries is determined by non-stationary accretion parameters such as the rate-of-change of the mass accretion rate rather than the mass accretion rate itself. The correlation is also found to hold in data of individual sources 4U 1608-52 and 4U 1636-53.
Optical observations of Sco X-1 with exposure times around 0.5 s were performed with the 1.56 m telescope of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in 2008.With these observations,we studied the fluctuation of the optical flux on three short timescales(5,10,100 s).We found that the standard deviations of fluctuations on these three timescales differ from those of Gaussian distributions by 7 Sigma,5 Sigma and 3 Sigma,respectively.The result suggests that the variations in the intensity on these short timescales differ from pure statistical fluctuations,which,we suggest,is due to the intrinsic variability in the optical emission.
CAO XiaoFeng1,2,YU WenFei1,YAN Zhen1 & SUN Li1 1 Shanghai Astronomical Observatory,Shanghai 200030,China
Using observations in the past four years with the All Sky Monitor(ASM) onboard the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer(RXTE) and the Burst Alert Telescope(BAT) onboard the Swift,we demonstrate that the hard state and the soft state are the primary spectral states in galactic black hole and neutron star X-ray binaries.In addition,we show quantitatively the preference of the two spectral states for each of the 22 bright persistent sources.
YAN Zhen & YU WenFei Shanghai Astronomical Observatory,Shanghai 200030,China
Recent studies of black hole and neutron star low mass X-ray binaries(LMXBs) show a positive correlation between the X-ray flux at which the low/hard(LH)-to-high/soft(HS) state transition occurs and the peak flux of the following HS state.By analyzing the data from the All Sky Monitor(ASM) onboard the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer(RXTE),we show that the HS state flux after the source reaches its HS flux peak still correlates with the transition flux during soft X-ray transient(SXT) outbursts.By studying large outbursts or flares of GX 339-4,Aql X-1 and 4U 1705-44,we have found that the correlation holds up to 250,40,and 50 d after the LH-to-HS state transition,respectively.These time scales correspond to the viscous time scale in a standard accretion disk around a stellar mass black hole or a neutron star at a radius of-104-5 Rg,indicating that the mass accretion rates in the accretion flow either correlate over a large range of radii at a given time or correlate over a long period of time at a given radius.If the accretion geometry is a two-flow geometry composed of a sub-Keplerian inflow or outflow and a disk flow in the LH state,the disk flow with a radius up to-105 Rg would have contributed to the nearly instantaneous non-thermal radiation directly or indirectly,and therefore affects the time when the state transition occurs.
