2007/05/24 by D. M. Russell, T. J. Maccarone, Thomas J. Maccarone +3 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Black hole (networking) #Flux (metallurgy) #Galaxy #Infrared #Luminosity #Mechanics and Biomechanics Studies #Neutron star #Optics #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Radiative transfer #X-ray #X-ray binary #X-ray transient #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.11996.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.379:1401-1408,2007 · MNRAS accepted. 9 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2007/05/24 · openalex publication_date 2007/07/26 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report the discovery of a new hysteresis effect in black hole X-ray binary state transitions, that of the near-infrared (NIR) flux (which most likely originates in the jets) versus X-ray flux. We find, looking at existing data sets, that the IR emission of black hole X-ray transients appears to be weaker in the low/hard state rise of an outburst than the low/hard state decline of an outburst at a given X-ray luminosity. We discuss how this effect may be caused by a shift in the radiative efficiency of the inflowing or outflowing matter, or variations in the disc viscosity or the spectrum/power of the jet. In addition we show that there is a correlation (in slope but not in normalization) between IR and X-ray luminosities on the rise and decline, for all three low-mass black hole X-ray binaries with well-sampled IR and X-ray coverage: LNIR∝L0.5–0.7X. In the high/soft state this slope is much shallower; LNIR∝L0.1–0.2X, and we find that the NIR emission in this state is most likely dominated by the viscously heated (as opposed to X-ray heated) accretion disc in all three sources.