Monitoring the Short-Term Variability of Cyg X-1: Spectra and Timing

We present first results from the spectral and temporal analysis of an RXTE monitoring campaign of the black hole candidate Cygnus X-1 in 1999. The timing properties of this hard state black hole show considerable variability, even though the state does not change. This has previously been noted for the power spectral density, but is probably even more pronounced for the time lags. From an analysis of four monitoring observations of Cyg X-1, separated by 2 weeks from each other, we find that a shortening of the time lags is associated with a hardening of the X-ray spectrum, as well as with a longer characteristic ``shot time scale''. We briefly discuss possible physical/geometrical reasons for this variability of the hard state properties.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Proc. of the 5th Compton Symposium, AIP, in pres

RXTE Observations of LMC X-1 and LMC X-3

Of all known persistent stellar-mass black hole candidates, only LMC X-1 and LMC X-3 consistently show spectra that are dominated by a soft, thermal component. We present results from long (170ksec) Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observations of LMC X-1 and LMC X-3 made in 1996 December. The spectra can be described by a multicolor disk blackbody plus an additional high-energy power-law. Even though the spectra are very soft (Gamma is about 2.5), RXTE detected a significant signal from LMC X-3 up to energies of 50keV, the hardest energy at which the object was ever detected. Focusing on LMC X-3, we present results from the first year of an ongoing monitoring campaign with RXTE which started in 1997 January. We show that the appearance of the object changes considerably over its ~200d long cycle. This variability can either be explained by periodic changes in the mass transfer rate or by a precessing accretion disk analogous to Her X-1.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, also available at http://aitzu3.ait.physik.uni-tuebingen.de/publications/preprints1998.html to be published in "Highlights of X-Ray Astronomy, a symposium in honour of Joachim Truemper" (B. Aschenbach et al., eds.), MPE Repor

RXTE Observation of Cygnus X-1: Spectra and Timing

We present first results from the analysis of an RXTE observation of Cyg X-1 in its low state, taken about two months after the end of the high state. With Gamma approx. equal to 1.45 the spectrum is considerably harder than previous low-state measurements. The observed spectrum can be explained by a Comptonization spectrum as that emitted from a spherical corona surrounded by a cold accretion disk. The optical depth of the corona is between 2 and 2.5 and the temperature is between 60 and 80 keV. Temporal analysis shows a typical Root Mean Square (RMS) noise of approximately 25%. The Pulse Shape Discrimination (PSD) can be described as consisting of a flat component followed by an 1/f power-law, followed by an f(sup -1.6) power-law. The lag of the hard photons with respect to the soft photons is consistent with prior observations. The coherence function is remarkably close to unity from 0.01 Hz to 10 Hz

ASCA and Radio/RXTE Observations of GX 339-4

We have analyzed three separate archival Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA) observations and eight separate Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observations of the black hole candidate GX 339-4 in its low luminosity, spectrally hard state. Three of the RXTE observations were strictly simultaneous with 843 MHz and 8.3- 9.1 GHz radio observations. All data sets show evidence for an approximately 6.4 keV Fe line with equivalent widths approximately 20-100 eV. 'Reflection models' show a hardening of the RXTE spectra with decreasing X-ray flux; however, these models do not exhibit evidence of a correlation between the photon index of the incident power law flux and the solid angle subtended by the reflector. None of the models fit to the X-ray data, however, simultaneously explain the observed radio properties. We argue that the spatial extent of the observed radio emission is at least 0(10(exp 7 GM/c squared). Timing analysis reveals that all observations save one show evidence of a persistent f(qpo approximately equals 0.3 Hz quasi-periodic oscillations(quasi-periodic oscillations)). The broad band (10-3-102 Hz) power appears to be dominated by two independent processes that can be modeled as very broad Lorentzians with Q approximately less than 1. Similar to Cyg X-1, the hard photon variability is seen to lag the soft photon vaxiability with the lag time increasing with decreasing Fourier frequency. The magnitude of this time lag is seen to be positively correlated with the flux of GX 339-4

Path integral Monte Carlo simulations of silicates

We investigate the thermal expansion of crystalline SiO$_2$ in the $\beta$-- cristobalite and the $\beta$-quartz structure with path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) techniques. This simulation method allows to treat low-temperature quantum effects properly. At temperatures below the Debye temperature, thermal properties obtained with PIMC agree better with experimental results than those obtained with classical Monte Carlo methods.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures, Phys. Rev. B (in press