Related papers: Fine-tuning the accretion disk clock in Hercules X…
Accretion-powered X-ray pulsars 4U 1626-67, GX 1+4, and OAO 1657-415 have recently shown puzzling torque reversals. These reversals are characterized by short time scales, on the order of days, nearly identical spin-up and spin-down rates,…
We study the precession of accretion disks in the context of gamma-ray burst inner engines. Our aim is to quantitatively estimate the characteristics of gravitational waves produced by the precession of the transient accretion disk in…
The cyclotron line feature in the X-ray spectrum of the accretion powered pulsar Her X-1 has been observed and monitored for over three decades. The line energy exhibited a slow secular decline over the period 1995-2014, with a possible…
Swift/BAT and RXTE/ASM observations have monitored the X-ray binary system Her X-1 for approximately 14.5 years each, and both were monitoring Her X-1 for a period of ~5.5 years. Here we study the 35-day cycle using these observations.…
Current theoretical models for the outflows/jets from AGN, X-ray binaries and young stellar objects involve large-scale magnetic fields threading an underlying accretion disk. We suggest that such a disk is subjected to warping instability…
We describe some recent nonlinear three dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of accretion discs in binary systems where the orbit is circular and not necessarily coplanar with the disc midplane. The calculations are relevant to a number of…
Aims. We investigate observations of the X-ray binary Cygnus X-1 with unusually high hardness and low flux. In particular, we study the characteristic frequencies seen in the PDS and the hardness-flux correlation within and between these…
We report here an investigation of the X-ray eclipse transitions of the high mass X-ray binary pulsar Cen X-3 in different intensity states. Long term light curve of Cen X-3 obtained with RXTE-ASM spanning for more than 5000 days shows…
An accretion disk around a rotating magnetized star is subjected to magnetic torques which induce disk warping and precession. These torques arise from interactions between the stellar field and the induced surface currents on the disk.…
Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer observations of the black hole binary LMC X-3 reveal an extended very low X-ray state lasting from 2003 December 13 until 2004 March 18, unprecedented both in terms of its low luminosity (>15 times fainter than…
Ginga and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observations have allowed an unprecedented view of the recurrent systematic pulse shape changes associated with the 35-day cycle of Hercules X-1, a phenomenon currently unique among the known…
The high state of black hole candidates is characterized by a quasi- thermal emission component at $kT \sim 1$ keV. In addition, this state tends to have very low variability which indicates that it is relatively stable, at least on {\it…
We conduct a comprehensive analysis of the accreting X-ray pulsar, Hercules X-1, utilizing data from IXPE and NuSTAR. IXPE performed five observations of Her X-1, consisting of three in the Main-on state and two in the Short-on state. Our…
We have investigated the long term flux variation in Cen X-3 using orbital modulation and pulsed fraction in different flux states using observations made with the All Sky Monitor and the Proportional Counter Array on board the Rossi X-ray…
Aql X-1 is a soft X-ray transient source and emits type I X-ray bursts. A spectral state transition was observed with RXTE during its outburst decay in February and March 1997. Its 10-30 keV and 5-10 keV count rate ratio increased suddenly…
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…
Enigmatic transitions between spin-up and spin-down have been observed in several X-ray pulsars accreting matter via an accretion disk. In these transitions, the torque changes sign but remains at nearly the same magnitude. It has been…
We report on timing and spectral observations of the 2000 outburst of XTE J1550-564 made by the Unconventional Stellar Aspect (USA) Experiment on board the Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS). We observe a…
Models for the characteristically soft X-ray spectrum of the compact X-ray source V1498 Aql (=4U 1957+11) have ranged from optically thick Comptonization to multicolor accretion disk models. We critically examine the X-ray spectrum of V1408…
A strong X-ray illumination of the optical star atmosphere in Her X-1, asymmetric because of a partial shadowing by the tilted twisted accretion disk around central neutron star, leads to the formation of matter flows coming out of the…