8,893 research outputs found
The Closest Look at 1H0707-495: X-ray Reverberation Lags with 1.3 Ms of Data
Reverberation lags in AGN were first discovered in the NLS1 galaxy,
1H0707-495. We present a follow-up analysis using 1.3 Ms of data, which allows
for the closest ever look at the reverberation signature of this remarkable
source. We confirm previous findings of a hard lag of ~100 seconds at
frequencies v ~ [0.5 - 4] e-4 Hz, and a soft lag of ~30 seconds at higher
frequencies, v ~ [0.6 - 3] e-3 Hz. These two frequency domains clearly show
different energy dependences in their lag spectra. We also find evidence for a
signature from the broad Fe K line in the high frequency lag spectrum. We use
Monte Carlo simulations to show how the lag and coherence measurements respond
to the addition of Poisson noise and to dilution by other components. With our
better understanding of these effects on the lag, we show that the lag-energy
spectra can be modelled with a scenario in which low frequency hard lags are
produced by a compact corona responding to accretion rate fluctuations
propagating through an optically thick accretion disc, and the high frequency
soft lags are produced by short light-travel delay associated with reflection
of coronal power-law photons off the disc.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
On Estimating the High-Energy Cutoff in the X-ray Spectra of Black Holes via Reflection Spectroscopy
The fundamental parameters describing the coronal spectrum of an accreting
black hole are the slope of the power-law continuum and the energy
at which it rolls over. Remarkably, this parameter can be accurately
measured for values as high as 1 MeV by modeling the spectrum of X-rays
reflected from a black hole accretion disk at energies below 100 keV. This is
possible because the details in the reflection spectrum, rich in fluorescent
lines and other atomic features, are very sensitive to the spectral shape of
the hardest coronal radiation illuminating the disk. We show that fitting
simultaneous NuSTAR (3-79 keV) and low-energy (e.g., Suzaku) data with the most
recent version of our reflection model RELXILL, one can obtain reasonable
constraints on at energies from tens of keV up to 1 MeV, for a source
as faint as 1 mCrab in a 100 ks observation.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL, 6 pages, 5 figure
X-ray Reflection Spectroscopy of the Black Hole GX 339-4: Exploring the Hard State with Unprecedented Sensitivity
We analyze {\it simultaneously} six composite {\it RXTE} spectra of GX 339--4
in the hard state comprising 77 million counts collected over 196 ks. The
source spectra are ordered by luminosity and spanthe range 1.6\% to 17\% of the
Eddington luminosity. Crucially, using our new tool {\tt pcacorr}, we
re-calibrate the data to a precision of 0.1\%, an order of magnitude
improvement over all earlier work. Using our advanced reflection model {\tt
relxill}, we target the strong features in the component of emission reflected
from the disk, namely, the relativistically-broadened Fe K emission line, the
Fe K edge and the Compton hump. We report results for two joint fits to the six
spectra: For the first fit, we fix the spin parameter to its maximal value
() and allow the inner disk radius to vary. Results
include (i) precise measurements of , with evidence that the disk
becomes slightly truncated at a few percent of Eddington; and (ii) an
order-of-magnitude swing with luminosity in the high energy cutoff, which
reaches keV at our lowest luminosity. For the second fit, we make the
standard assumption in estimating spin that the inner edge of the accretion
disk is located at the innermost stable circular orbit () and find (90\% confidence,
statistical). For both fits, and at the same level of statistical confidence,
we estimate that the disk inclination is deg and that the Fe
abundance is super-solar, .Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 20 pages, 13 figure
Neutron star mass and radius measurements from atmospheric model fits to X-ray burst cooling tail spectra
Observations of thermonuclear X-ray bursts from accreting neutron stars (NSs)
in low-mass X-ray binary systems can be used to constrain NS masses and radii.
Most previous work of this type has set these constraints using Planck function
fits as a proxy: both the models and the data are fit with diluted blackbody
functions to yield normalizations and temperatures which are then compared
against each other. Here, for the first time, we fit atmosphere models of X-ray
bursting NSs directly to the observed spectra. We present a hierarchical
Bayesian fitting framework that uses state-of-the-art X-ray bursting NS
atmosphere models with realistic opacities and relativistic exact Compton
scattering kernels as a model for the surface emission. We test our approach
against synthetic data, and find that for data that are well-described by our
model we can obtain robust radius, mass, distance, and composition
measurements. We then apply our technique to Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer
observations of five hard-state X-ray bursts from 4U 1702-429. Our joint fit to
all five bursts shows that the theoretical atmosphere models describe the data
well but there are still some unmodeled features in the spectrum corresponding
to a relative error of 1-5% of the energy flux. After marginalizing over this
intrinsic scatter, we find that at 68% credibility the circumferential radius
of the NS in 4U 1702-429 is R = 12.4+-0.4 km, the gravitational mass is
M=1.9+-0.3 Msun, the distance is 5.1 < D/kpc < 6.2, and the hydrogen mass
fraction is X < 0.09.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, submitted to A&
A Parallax Distance to the Microquasar GRS 1915+105 and a Revised Estimate of its Black Hole Mass
Using the Very Long Baseline Array, we have measured a trigonometric parallax
for the micro quasar GRS 1915+105, which contains a black hole and a K-giant
companion. This yields a direct distance estimate of 8.6 (+2.0,-1.6) kpc and a
revised estimate for the mass of the black hole of 12.4 (+2.0,-1.8) Msun. GRS
1915+105 is at about the same distance as some HII regions and water masers
associated with high-mass star formation in the Sagittarius spiral arm of the
Galaxy. The absolute proper motion of GRS 1915+105 is -3.19 +/- 0.03 mas/y and
-6.24 +/- 0.05 mas/y toward the east and north, respectively, which corresponds
to a modest peculiar speed of 22 +/-24 km/s at the parallax distance,
suggesting that the binary did not receive a large velocity kick when the black
hole formed. On one observational epoch, GRS 1915+105 displayed superluminal
motion along the direction of its approaching jet. Considering previous
observations of jet motions, the jet in GRS 1915+105 can be modeled with a jet
inclination to the line of sight of 60 +/- 5 deg and a variable flow speed
between 0.65c and 0.81c, which possibly indicates deceleration of the jet at
distances from the black hole >2000 AU. Finally, using our measurements of
distance and estimates of black hole mass and inclination, we provisionally
confirm our earlier result that the black hole is spinning very rapidly.Comment: 20 pages; 2 tables; 6 figure
A hybrid threat model for smart systems
Cyber-physical systems and their smart components have a pervasive presence in all our daily activities. Unfortunately, identifying the potential threats and issues in these systems and selecting enough protection is challenging given that such environments combine human, physical and cyber aspects to the system design and implementation. Current threat models and analysis do not take into consideration all three aspects of the analyzed system, how they can introduce new vulnerabilities or protection measures to each other. In this work, we introduce a novel threat model for cyber-physical systems that combines the cyber, physical, and human aspects. Our model represents the system's components relations and security properties by taking into consideration these three aspects. Together with the threat model we also propose a threat analysis method that allows understanding the security state of the system's components. The threat model and the threat analysis have been implemented into an automatic tool, called TAMELESS, that automatically analyzes threats to the system, verifies its security properties, and generates a graphical representation, useful for security architects to identify the proper prevention/mitigation solutions. We show and prove the use of our threat model and analysis with three cases studies from different sectors
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