Related papers: Power-Colours: Simple X-ray Binary Variability Com…
A common question about compact objects in high energy astrophysics is whether it is possible to distinguish black hole from neutron star systems with some other property that is not the mass of the compact object. Up to now a few…
The last two decades have seen a great improvement in our understand- ing of the complex phenomenology observed in transient black-hole binary systems, especially thanks to the activity of the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer satellite, com-…
In X-ray binary star systems consisting of a compact object that accretes material from an orbiting secondary star, there is no straightforward means to decide if the compact object is a black hole or a neutron star. To assist this…
Black hole binary systems can emit very bright and rapidly varying X-ray signals when material from the companion accretes onto the black hole, liberating huge amounts of gravitational potential energy. Central to this process of accretion…
Accreting black holes show characteristic reflection features in their X-ray spectrum, including an iron K$\alpha$ line, resulting from hard X-ray continuum photons illuminating the accretion disk. The reverberation lag resulting from the…
Long-term ("superorbital") periods or modulations have been detected in a wide variety of both low and high-mass X-ray binaries at X-ray and optical wavelengths. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed to account for the variability…
We present a comprehensive timing analysis of the black hole X-ray binary Cygnus X-1 using 26 NuSTAR observations spanning 2012-2024, providing the most detailed characterization to date of its accretion flow variability across spectral…
The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) observed the black hole X-ray binary 4U 1630-47 in the steep power law (or very high) state. The observations reveal a linear polarization degree of the 2-8 keV X-rays of 6.8 +/- 0.2 % at a…
We present the results of the spectroscopic observations of HDE 226868, the optical counterpart to the black hole X-ray binary Cyg X-1, from 2001 to 2006. We analyze the variabilities of the two components in the complex H$\alpha$ line: one…
We analyzed the power density spectra of a sample of 9 neutron star and 9 black hole binaries in the low/hard spectral state. In the power density spectra of accreting neutron stars with a weak magnetic field a significant power is…
We present results from a 20 ksec RXTE observation of the black hole candidate Cyg X-1. We apply self-consistent accretion disk corona models to these hard state data and show that Comptonization in a spherical corona irradiated by soft…
The spins of a number of supermassive and stellar-mass black holes have been measured based on detections of thermal continuum emission and relativistically broadened iron lines in their x-ray spectra. Likewise, quasiperiodic variability…
Owing to the frequency and reproducibility of its outbursts, the black-hole candidate GX 339-4 has become the standard against which the outbursts of other black-hole candidate are matched up. Here we present the first systematic study of…
Stochastic variability in two out of four XMM-Newton observations of XMMU J004303+4115 along with its power spectra and X-ray luminosities suggest a low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) with a black hole primary. However, Chandra observations…
A technique for calculation of variability coherence at different timescales performed directly in the time domain is introduced. Simulations are made to compare the coherence spectrum derived by the time domain technique with the coherence…
The observations and theory of the exciting new class of galactic black hole X-ray transients is reviewed. Seven of these systems have measured mass functions or mass estimates in excess of stable neutron stars, making them excellent black…
The X-ray spectra of Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXB) can change on short time-scales, making it difficult to follow their spectral characteristics in detail through model fitting. Colour-colour (C-C) diagrams are therefore often used as…
In the study of black-hole transients, an important problem that still needs to be answered is how the high-energy part of the spectrum evolves from the low-hard to the high-soft state, given that they have very different properties. Recent…
Accreting black holes radiate in one of several spectral states, switching from one to another for reasons that are as yet not understood. Using the best studied example, Cyg X-1, we identify the geometry and physical conditions…
We present a model for the short timescale spectral variability of accreting black holes. It describes well the time-averaged spectra as well as temporal characteristics such as power-density spectrum, time/phase lags, and coherence…