The X-ray/ -ray spectrum of XTE J1550-564 in the very high state

2002/12/31 by Marek Gierliński, Marek Gierlinski, Chris Done
Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Accretion disc #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Black hole (networking) #Compton scattering #Electron #Nuclear physics #Optics #Photon #Physics #Scattering #Thermal #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06591.x

published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 342 (2003) 1083 · 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted version

arxiv created 2003/03/12 · openalex publication_date 2003/07/04 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We fit the broad-band X-ray/γ-ray spectrum (0.8–1000 keV) of the accreting black hole XTE J1550−564 in the very high state. The quasi-simultaneous data from ASCA, RXTE and OSSE (on CGRO) show that the disc is strongly Comptonized, with a high-energy tail extending out to several hundred keV. However, inverse Compton scattering by a purely thermal or purely power-law electron distribution cannot explain the observed spectrum. Instead, the data require a hybrid distribution, with both thermal and non-thermal electrons scattering the disc photons. This is very similar to the electron distribution inferred for other high and very high state black hole binaries, showing that it is a generic feature of high mass accretion rate black holes.

Citations

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