Bibcode
Paice, J. A.; Gandhi, P.; Shahbaz, T.; Veledina, A.; Malzac, J.; Buckley, D. A. H.; Charles, P. A.; Rajwade, K.; Dhillon, V. S.; Littlefair, S. P.; Marsh, T. R.; Uttley, P.; Vincentelli, F. M.; Misra, R.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Advertised on:
8
2021
Citations
17
Refereed citations
15
Description
We report on a multiepoch campaign of rapid optical/X-ray timing observations of the superbright 2018 outburst of MAXI J1820+070, a black hole low-mass X-ray binary system. The observations spanned 80 d in the initial hard state and were taken with NTT/ULTRACAM and GTC/HiPERCAM in the optical (usgsrsiszs filters at time resolutions of 8-300 Hz) and with ISS/NICER in X-rays. We find (i) a growing anticorrelation between the optical and X-ray light curves, (ii) a steady, positive correlation at an optical lag of ~0.2 s (with a longer lag at longer wavelengths) present in all epochs, and (iii) a curious positive correlation at negative optical lags in the last, X-ray softest epoch, with longer wavelengths showing a greater correlation and a more negative lag. To explain these, we postulate the possible existence of two synchrotron-emitting components - a compact jet and a hot flow. In our model, the significance of the jet decreases over the outburst, while the hot flow remains static (thus, relatively, increasing in significance). We also discuss a previously discovered quasi-periodic oscillation and note how it creates coherent optical time lags, stronger at longer wavelengths, during at least two epochs.
Related projects
Black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs and their local environment
Accreting black-holes and neutron stars in X-ray binaries provide an ideal laboratory for exploring the physics of compact objects, yielding not only confirmation of the existence of stellar mass black holes via dynamical mass measurements, but also the best opportunity for probing high-gravity environments and the physics of accretion; the most
Montserrat
Armas Padilla