Zhen Yan

STATE TRANSITIONS IN BRIGHT GALACTIC X-RAY BINARIES: LUMINOSITIES SPAN BY TWO ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE

Using X-ray monitoring observations with the All-Sky Monitor on board the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer and the Burst Alert Telescope on board the Swift, we are able to study the spectral state transitions occurred in about 20 bright persistent and transient black hole and neutron star binaries. We have confirmed that there is a correlation between the X-ray luminosity corresponding to the hard-to-soft transition and the X-ray luminosity of the following soft state. This correlation holds over a luminosity range spanning by 2 orders of magnitude, with no indication of a flux saturation or cutoff. We have also found that the transition luminosity correlates with the rate of increase in the X-ray luminosity during the rising phase of an outburst or flare, implying that the origin of the variation of the transition luminosity is associated with non-stationary accretion in both transient sources and persistent sources. The correlation between the luminosity corresponding to the end of the soft-to-hard transition and the peak luminosity of the preceding soft state is found insignificant. The results suggest that the hysteresis effect of spectral state transitions is primarily driven by non-stationary accretion when the mass accretion rate increases rather than the mass accretion rate decreases. Our results also imply that Galactic X-ray binaries can reach more luminous hard states during outbursts of higher luminosities and of similar rise timescales as those observed. Based on the correlations, we speculate that bright hard state beyond the Eddington luminosity will be observed in Galactic binaries in the next century. We also suggest that some ultra-luminous X-ray sources in nearby galaxies, which stay in the hard states during bright, short flares, harbor stellar-mass compact stars.

SINGLE-PULSE RADIO OBSERVATIONS OF THE GALACTIC CENTER MAGNETAR PSR J1745-2900

In this paper, we report radio observations of the Galactic Center magnetar PSR J1745-2900 at six epochs between June and October, 2014. These observations were carried out using the new Shanghai Tian Ma Radio Telescope at a frequency of 8.6 GHz. Both the flux density and integrated profile of PSR J1745-2900 show dramatic changes from epoch to epoch showing that the pulsar was in its erratic phase. On MJD 56836, the flux density of this magnetar was about 8.7 mJy, which was ten times large than that reported at the time of discovery, enabling a single-pulse analysis. The emission is dominated by narrow spiky pulses which follow a log-normal distribution in peak flux density. From 1913 pulses, we detected 53 pulses whose peak flux density is ten times greater than that of the integrated profile. They are concentrated in pulse phase at the peaks of the integrated profile. The pulse widths at the 50% level of these bright pulses was between 0.2 to 0.9 deg, much narrower than that of integrated profile (~12 deg). The observed pulse widths may be limited by interstellar scattering. No clear correlation was found between the widths and peak flux density of these pulses and no evidence was found for subpulse drifting. Relatively strong spiky pulses are also detected in the other five epochs of observation, showing the same properties as that detected in MJD 56836. These strong spiky pulses cannot be classified as giant pulses but are more closely related to normal pulse emission.

THE UNIVERSAL “HEARTBEAT” OSCILLATIONS IN BLACK HOLE SYSTEMS ACROSS THE MASS-SCALE

The hyperluminous X-ray source (HLX-1, peak X-ray luminosity ) near the spiral galaxy ESO 243-49, which underwent recurrent outbursts within a period of ~400 days, is possibly the best candidate for an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH). The physical reason for this quasiperiodic variability is still unclear. We explore the possibility of radiation-pressure instability in the accretion disk by modeling the light curve of HLX-1, and find that it can roughly reproduce the duration, period, and amplitude of the recurrent outbursts in HLX-1 with an IMBH of . Our result provides a possible mechanism to explain the recurrent outbursts in HLX-1. We further find a universal correlation between the outburst duration and the bolometric luminosity for the black hole (BH) sources with a very broad mass range (e.g., X-ray binaries, HLX-1, and active galactic nuclei), which is roughly consistent with the prediction of radiation-pressure instability of the accretion disk. These results imply that heartbeat oscillations triggered by radiation-pressure instability may appear in different-scale BH systems.

X-ray outbursts of ESO 243-49 HLX-1: comparison with galactic low-mass x-ray binary transients

We studied the outburst properties of the hyper-luminous X-ray source ESO 243-49 HLX-1, using the full set of Swift monitoring observations. We quantified the increase in the waiting time, recurrence time, and e-folding rise timescale along the outburst sequence, and the corresponding decrease in outburst duration, total radiated energy, and e-folding decay timescale, which confirms previous findings. HLX-1 spends less and less time in outburst and more and more time in quiescence, but its peak luminosity remains approximately constant. We compared the HLX-1 outburst properties with those of bright Galactic low-mass X-ray binary transients (LMXBTs). Our spectral analysis strengthens the similarity between state transitions in HLX-1 and those in Galactic LMXBTs. We also found that HLX-1 follows the nearly linear correlations between the hard-to-soft state transition luminosity and the peak luminosity, and between the rate of change of X-ray luminosity during the rise phase and the peak luminosity, which indicates that the occurrence of the hard-to-soft state transition of HLX-1 is similar to those of Galactic LMXBTs during outbursts. We found that HLX-1 does not follow the correlations between total radiated energy and peak luminosity, and between total radiated energy and e-folding rise/decay timescales we had previously identified in Galactic LMXBTs. HLX-1 would follow those correlations if the distance were several hundreds of kiloparsecs. However, invoking a much closer distance for HLX-1 is not a viable solution to this problem, as it introduces other, more serious inconsistencies with the observations.

Daily Observations of Interstellar Scintillation in PSR B0329+54

Quasi-continuous observations of PSR B03239+54 over 20 d using the Nanshan 25-m telescope at 1540 MHz have been used to study the effects of refractive scintillation on the pulsar flux density and diffractive scintillation properties. Dynamic spectra were obtained from data sets of 90 min duration and diffractive parameters derived from a two-dimensional auto-correlation analysis. Secondary spectra were also computed but these showed no significant evidence for arc structure. Cross-correlations between variations in the derived parameters were much lower than predicted by thin-screen models and in one case was of opposite sign to the prediction. Observed modulation indices were larger than predicted by thin-screen models with a Kolmogorov fluctuation spectrum. Structure functions were computed for the flux density, diffractive time-scale and decorrelation bandwidth. These indicated a refractive time-scale of 8 +/- 2 h, much shorter than predicted by the thin-screen model. The measured structure function slope of 0.4 +/- 0.2 is also inconsistent with scattering by a single thin screen for which a slope of 2.0 is expected. All observations are consistent with scattering by an extended medium having a Kolmogorov fluctuation spectrum which is concentrated towards the pulsar. This interpretation is also consistent with recent observations of multiple diffuse scintillation arcs for this pulsar.

On the origin of the HLX-1 outbursts

HLX-1, currently the best intermediate-mass black hole candidate, has undergone seven violent outbursts, each with a peak X-ray luminosity of

An ultraviolet flux drop preceding the X-ray hard-to-soft state transition during the 2010 outburst of GX 339−4

L_{mathrm{peak},mathrm{X}}sim 10^{42} rm{erg s^{-1}}

MULTI-FREQUENCY RADIO PROFILES OF PSR B1133+16: RADIATION LOCATION AND PARTICLE ENERGY

. Interestingly, the properties of the HLX-1 outbursts evolve with time. In this work, we aim to constrain the physical parameters of the central engine of the HLX-1 outbursts in the framework of the black hole accretion. We find that the physical properties of the HLX-1 outbursts are consistent with being driven by the radiation pressure instability. This scenario can explain the evolution of the recurrent timescales of the HLX-1 outbursts as a function of the durations.

Early Phase Detection and Coverage of Extragalactic and Galactic Black Hole X-ray Transients with SKA

The black hole X-ray transient GX 339-4 was observed with the Swift satellite across the hard-to-soft state transition during its 2010 outburst. The ultraviolet (UV) flux measured with the filter UVW2 of the Swift/UVOT started to decrease nearly 10 days before the drop in the hard X-ray flux when the hard-to-soft state transition started. The UV flux, F-UV, correlated with the X-ray flux, F-X, as F-UV proportional to F-X(0.50 +/- 0.04) before the drop in the UV flux. During the UV drop lasting about 16 days, the X-ray flux in 0.410 keV was increasing. The drop in the UV flux indicates that the jet started to quench 10 days before the hard-to-soft state transition seen in X-rays, which is unexpected.

Simultaneous 13 cm/3 cm Single-pulse Observations of PSR B0329+54

The pulse profile of PSR B1133+16 is usually regarded as a conal-double structure. However, its multifrequency profiles cannot simply be fitted with two Gaussian functions, and a third component is always needed to fit the bridge region (between two peaks). This would introduce additional, redundant parameters. In this paper, through a comparison of five fitting functions (Gaussian, von Mises, hyperbolic secant, square hyperbolic secant, and Lorentz), it is found that the square hyperbolic secant function can best reproduce the profile, yielding an improved fit. Moreover, a symmetric 2D radiation beam function, instead of a simple 1D Gaussian function, is used to fit the profile. Each profile with either well-resolved or not-so-well-resolved peaks could be fitted adequately using this beam function, and the bridge emission between the two peaks does not need to be a new component. Adopting inclination and impact angles based on polarization measurements, the opening angle ({theta}_{mu}0) of the radiation beam in a certain frequency band is derived from beam-function fitting. The corresponding radiation altitudes are then calculated. Based on multi-frequency profiles, we also computed the Lorentz factors of the particles and their dispersion at those locations in both the curvature-radiation (CR) and inverse-Compton-scattering (ICS) models. We found that the Lorentz factors of the particles decrease rapidly as the radiation altitude increases. Besides, the radiation prefers to be generated in annular region rather than core region, and this needs further validation.