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Discovery and Evolution of the New Black Hole Candidate Swift J1539.2-6227 During Its 2008 OutburstWe report on the discovery by the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer of the black hole candidate Swift J1539.2-6227 and the subsequent course of an outburst beginning in November 2008 and lasting at least seven months. The source was discovered during normal observations with the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on 2008 November 25. An extended observing campaign with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and Swift provided near-daily coverage over 176 days, giving us a rare opportunity to track the evolution of spectral and timing parameters with fine temporal resolution through a series of spectral states. The source was first detected in a hard state during which strong low-frequency quasiperiodic oscillations (QPOs) were detected. The QPOs persisted for about 35 days and a signature of the transition from the hard to soft intermediate states was seen in the timing data. The source entered a short-lived thermal state about 40 days after the start of the outburst. There were variations in spectral hardness as the source flux declined and returned to a hard state at the end of the outburst. The progression of spectral states and the nature of the timing features provide strong evidence that Swift J1539.2-6227 is a candidate black hole in a low-mass X-ray binary system.
Document ID
20110005662
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Krimm, H. A. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Tomsick, J. A. (California Univ. Berkeley, CA, United States)
Markwardt, C. B. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Brocksopp, C. (University Coll. London, United Kingdom)
Grise, F. (Iowa Univ. Iowa City, IA, United States)
Kaaret, P. (Iowa Univ. Iowa City, IA, United States)
Romano, P. (Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (INAF-IASF) Rome, Italy)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
October 27, 2010
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG06EO90A
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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