Статья

THE CONSTANT INNER-DISK RADIUS OF LMC X-3: A BASIS FOR MEASURING BLACK HOLE SPIN

James F. SteinerHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; [email protected]Jeffrey E. McClintockHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; [email protected]Ronald A. RemillardMIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, MIT, 70 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USALijun GouHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; [email protected]Shin'ya YamadaDepartment of Physics, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, JapanRamesh NarayanHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; [email protected]

2010en

ABI

Аннотация

he black hole binary system LMC X-3 has been observed by virtually every X-ray mission since the inception of X-ray astronomy. Among the persistent sources, LMC X-3 is uniquely both habitually soft and highly variable. Using a fully relativistic accretion disk model, we analyze hundreds of spectra collected during eight X-ray missions that span 26 years. For a selected sample of 391\nRXTE spectra, we find that to within ≈2% the inner radius of the accretion disk is constant over time and unaffected by source variability. Even considering an ensemble of eight X-ray missions, we find consistent values of the radius to within ≈4%–6%. Our results provide strong evidence for the existence of a fixed inner-disk radius. The only reasonable inference is that this radius is closely associated with the general relativistic innermost stable circular orbit. Our findings establish a firm foundation for the measurement of black hole spin.

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Идентификаторы

DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/718/2/l117

Цитирования и источники

Цитирований: 19Использованных источников: 0

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