2013/09/30 by S. E. Motta, T. M. Belloni, L. Stella +2
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stt2068
16 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables. Accepted by MNRAS
arxiv created 2013/10/23 · arxiv updated 2015/06/17
We present a systematic analysis of the fast time variability properties of the transient black hole binary GRO J1655-40, based on the complete set of RossiXTE observations. We demonstrate that the frequencies of the quasi-periodic oscillations and of the broad band noise components and their variations match accurately the strong field general relativistic frequencies of particle motion in the close vicinity of the innermost stable circular orbit, as predicted by the relativistic precession model. We obtain high precision measurements of the black hole mass (M = (5.31 +/- 0.07) M solar masses, consistent with the value from optical/NIR observations) and spin (a/M = 0.290 +/- 0.003), through the sole use of X-ray timing.