The faint 2005 hard state outburst of Aquila X-1 seen by INTEGRAL and RXTE

We report on the spectral analysis of RXTE and INTEGRAL data of the 2005 April outburst of the transient Atoll source Aql X-1. Although this outburst is one of the faintest ever detected for this source in the soft X-rays (RXTE/ASM), one of our INTEGRAL observations, taken close to the soft X-ray peak, shows that the source flux was quite high, with a 20-200 keV flux of 2.05 x 10^-9 erg cm^-2 s^-1. On this occasion we detect the source up to 150 keV for the first time. We compare and discuss the similarity of the source behavior with that of black hole transients especially XTE J1550-564.Comment: 4 pages 2 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A as a RESEARCH NOT

Four new black hole candidates identified in M31 globular clusters with Chandra and XMM-Newton

We have identified four new black hole candidates in M31 globular clusters using 123 Chandra, and 4 XMM-Newton observations of the M31 central region. The X-ray source associated with Bo 163 (XB163) is a recurrent transient, with the highest luminosity ~1.4E+38 erg/s, considerably brighter than any outbursts from the neutron star transients Aql X-1 or 4U 1608-452; the outburst apparently started ~45 days earlier than the observed peak, hence the luminosity could have been considerably higher. We identified XB082, XB153 and XB185 as BHCs by observing "low state" emission spectra at luminosities that exceed the threshold for neutron star binaries. The probability that these are neutron star systems with anisotropic emission beamed toward us is <4E-4, and their variability suggests emission from a single source. We therefore conclude that these systems likely contain black holes rather than neutron stars. We have now identified 4 persistently bright BHCs in the region; the probability that these are all background AGN is <1E-20. According to theory, the donors could be tidally captured main sequence stars, or white dwarves in ultra-compact binaries. We find that GCs that are particularly massive (XB082) or metal rich (XB144) can host bright X-ray sources in addition to those that are both (XB163). Our method may reveal BHCs in other bright X-ray sources.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 17 pages, 5 figure

State transitions in the 2001/2002 outburst of XTE J1650-500

We present a study of the X-ray transient and black hole candidate XTE J1650-500 during its 2001/2002 outburst. The source made two state transitions between the hard and soft states, at luminosity levels that differed by a factor of ~5-10. The first transition, between hard and soft, lasted for ~30 days and showed two parts; one part in which the spectral properties evolve smoothly away from the hard state and another that we identify as the 'steep power law state'. The two parts showed different behavior of the Fe K emission line and QPO frequencies. The second transition, from soft to hard, lasted only \~15 days and showed no evidence of the presence of the 'steep power law state'. Comparing observations from the early rise and the decay of the outburst, we conclude that the source can be in the hard state in a range of more 10^4 in luminosity. We briefly discuss the state transitions in the framework of a two-flow model.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Proc. of the II BeppoSAX Meeting: "The Restless High-Energy Universe" (Amsterdam, May 5-8, 2003), E.P.J. van den Heuvel, J.J.M. in 't Zand, and R.A.M.J. Wijers Ed

Asymmetry Effects on Nuclear Fragmentation

We show the possibility of extracting important information on the symmetry term of the Equation of State ($EOS$) directly from multifragmentation reactions using stable isotopes with different charge asymmetries. We study n-rich and n-poor $Sn + Sn$ collisions at $50AMeV$ using a new stochastic transport approach with all isospin effects suitably accounted for. For central collisions a chemical component in the spinodal instabilities is clearly seen. This effect is reduced in the neck fragmentation observed for semiperipheral collisions, pointing to a different nature of the instability. In spite of the low asymmetry tested with stable isotopes the results are showing an interesting and promising dependence on the stiffness of the symmetry term, with an indication towards an increase of the repulsion above normal density.Comment: 8 pages (Latex), 7 Postscript figures, CRIS2000 Conference, Acicastello, Italy, May 22-26, (2000), Nucl. Phys. A (in press

Higher Order Variability Properties of Accreting Black Holes

To better constrain the emission mechanism underlying the hard state of galactic black hole candidates, we use high-time resolution RXTE lightcurves for Cyg X-1 and GX 399-4 to compute two higher order variability statistics for these objects, the skewness and the Fourier bispectrum. Similar analyses, in particular using the skewness measure, have been attempted before, but the photon collection area of RXTE allows us to present results of much greater statistical significance. The results for the two objects are qualitatively similar, reinforcing the idea that the same basic mechanisms are at work in both. We find a significantly positive skewness for variability timescales less than $\sim 1$ second, and a {\it negative} skewness for timescale $1- 5$ sec. Such a skewness pattern cannot be reproduced by the simplest shot variability models where individual shots have a fixed profile and intensity and are uncorrelated in time. Further evidence against simple shot models comes from the significant detection of a non-zero bicoherence for Fourier periods $\sim 0.1-10$ sec, implying that significant coupling does exist between variations on these timescales. We discuss how current popular models for variability in black hole systems can be modified to match these observations. Using simulated light curves, we suggest that the most likely way to reproduce this observed behavior is to have the variability come in groups of many shots, with the number of shots per unit time fitting an envelope function which has a rapid rise and slow decay, while the individual shots have a slow rise and a rapid decay. Invoking a finite energy reservoir that is depleted by each shot is a natural way of producing the required shot correlations.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS, 10 pages, 7 figures, substantially improved discussion of errors, minor changes to interpretation sectio