High-density Reflection Spectroscopy of Black Hole X-Ray Binaries in the Hard State

Liu H, Jiang J, Zhang Z, Bambi C, Fabian AC, García JA, Ingram A, Kara E, Steiner JF, Tomsick JA, Walton DJ, Young AJ (2023)


Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2023

Journal

Book Volume: 951

Article Number: 145

Journal Issue: 2

DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/acd8b9

Abstract

We present a high-density relativistic reflection analysis of 21 spectra of six black hole X-ray binaries in the hard state with data from NuSTAR and Swift. We find that 76% of the observations in our sample require a disk density higher than the 1015 cm−3 assumed in the previous reflection analysis. Compared with the measurements from active galactic nuclei, stellar mass black holes have higher disk densities. Our fits indicate that the inner disk radius is close to the innermost stable circular orbit in the luminous hard state. The coronal temperatures are significantly lower than the prediction of a purely thermal plasma, which can be explained with a hybrid plasma model. If the disk density is fixed at 1015 cm−3, the disk ionization parameter is overestimated while the inner disk radius is unaffected.

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How to cite

APA:

Liu, H., Jiang, J., Zhang, Z., Bambi, C., Fabian, A.C., García, J.A.,... Young, A.J. (2023). High-density Reflection Spectroscopy of Black Hole X-Ray Binaries in the Hard State. Astrophysical Journal, 951(2). https://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acd8b9

MLA:

Liu, Honghui, et al. "High-density Reflection Spectroscopy of Black Hole X-Ray Binaries in the Hard State." Astrophysical Journal 951.2 (2023).

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