English

Reflection Spectroscopy of the Black Hole Binary XTE J1752-223 in its Long-Stable Hard State

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2018-09-05 v1

Abstract

We present a detailed spectral analysis of the Black Hole Binary XTE J1752-223 in the hard state of its 2009 outburst. Regular monitoring of this source by RXTE provided high signal-to-noise spectra along the outburst rise and decay. During one full month this source stalled at \sim30\% of its peak count rate at a constant hardness and intensity. By combining all the data in this exceptionally-stable hard state, we obtained an aggregate PCA spectrum (3-45 keV) with 100 million counts, and a corresponding HEXTE spectrum (20-140 keV) with 5.8 million counts. Implementing a version of our reflection code with a physical model for Comptonization, we obtain tight constraints on important physical parameters for this system. In particular, the inner accretion disk is measured very close in, at Rin=1.7±0.4R_\mathrm{in}=1.7\pm0.4 RgR_g. Assuming Rin=RISCOR_\mathrm{in}=R_\mathrm{ISCO}, we find a relatively high black hole spin (a=0.92±0.06a_*=0.92\pm0.06). Imposing a lamppost geometry, we obtain a low inclination (i=35±4i=35\pm4 deg), which agrees with the upper limit found in the radio (i<49i<49 deg). However, we note that this model cannot be statistically distinguished from a non-lamppost model with free emissivity index, for which the inclination is markedly higher. Additionally, we find a relatively cool corona (577057-70 keV), and large iron abundance (3.33.73.3-3.7 solar). We further find that properly accounting for Comptonization of the reflection emission improves the fit significantly and causes an otherwise low reflection fraction (0.20.3\sim 0.2-0.3) to increase by an order of magnitude, in line with geometrical expectations for a lamppost corona. We compare these results with similar investigations reported for GX 339-4 in its bright hard state.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1807.01949,
  title  = {Reflection Spectroscopy of the Black Hole Binary XTE J1752-223 in its Long-Stable Hard State},
  author = {Javier A. García and James F. Steiner and Victoria Grinberg and Thomas Dauser and Riley M. T. Connors and Jeffrey E. McClintock and Ronald A. Remillard and Joern Wilms and Fiona A. Harrison and John A. Tomsick},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.01949},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in ApJ. 11 pages, 7 figures