1105.4694 (Mayukh Pahari et al.)

Is IGR J17091-3624 a Missing Link between GRS 1915+105 and other Black Hole Low Mass X-ray Binaries?    [PDF]

Mayukh Pahari, J. S. Yadav, Sudip Bhattacharyya

In this work, we study the timing and spectral evolution of the transient low mass X-ray binary IGR J17091-3624 during its 2011 outburst. We present results obtained from observations with two instruments, Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE)/proportional counter array (PCA) and SWIFT/X-ray telescope (XRT), between 03 February 2011 and 10 April 2011. Apart from the detection of increase in X-ray flux while moving from the canonical low hard state to the hard intermediate state, we report the details of a transition from a low irregular variability state, commonly seen from most of the black hole X-ray binaries (BHXBs), to a regular, repetitive and large variability state, seen only from GRS 1915+105 ('\rho' class variability). By comparing the timing and spectral properties of IGR J17091-3624 in the variable state with those of the '\rho' class of GRS 1915+105, we conclude that till now the former is the only known source, which somewhat behaves like GRS 1915+105, and could be used as a missing link between GRS 1915+105 and other canonical BHXBs in understanding their accretion and radiation mechanisms.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.4694