2002/05/15 by T. Belloni, A. P. Colombo, J. Homan +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20020703
Accepted for publication on Astronomy and Astrophysics
arxiv created 2002/05/15 · openalex publication_date 2002/07/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We present the results of the analysis of 11 RXTE/PCA observations of the January 2002 outburst of the black-hole transient XTE J1550-564. The outburst was rather short, with an e-folding time of ~11 days in the PCA band 3–25 keV. The source was seen in an extreme low/hard state. The energy spectra could be fitted with a power law slightly steepening ( to ~1.5) in time, with a high-energy cutoff decreasing from ~300 keV to ~100 keV and some additional features between 6 and 7 keV, while the 3–150 keV flux decreased by a factor of 17. The power spectra were fitted with two broad Lorentzian components, whose characteristic frequencies decreased with the source flux, and whose fractional rms contribution was rather constant. The timing parameters derived can be identified with those observed in other systems. These results show that, although during previous, more luminous, outbursts, a very complex behavior was observed, at low luminosities XTE J1550-564 behaves in a way comparable to most Black-Hole Candidates.