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Published April 2020 | Accepted Version + Published
Journal Article Open

A detailed study on the reflection component for the black hole candidate MAXI J1836−194

Abstract

We present a detailed spectral analysis of the black hole candidate MAXI J1836−194. The source was caught in the intermediate state during its 2011 outburst by Suzaku and RXTE. We jointly fit the X-ray data from these two missions using the relxill model to study the reflection component, and a steep inner emissivity profile indicating a compact corona as the primary source is required in order to achieve a good fit. In addition, a reflection model with a lamp-post configuration (relxilllp), which is normally invoked to explain the steep emissivity profile, gives a worse fit and is excluded at 99 per cent confidence level compared to relxill. We also explore the effect of the ionization gradient on the emissivity profile by fitting the data with two relativistic reflection components, and it is found that the inner emissivity flattens. These results may indicate that the ionization state of the disc is not constant. All the models above require a supersolar iron abundance higher than ∼4.5. However, we find that the high-density version of reflionx can describe the same spectra even with solar iron abundance well. A moderate rotating black hole (a* = 0.84–0.94) is consistently obtained by our models, which is in agreement with previously reported values.

Additional Information

© 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model). Accepted 2020 February 6. Received 2020 February 6; in original form 2019 December 15. Published: 12 February 2020. We thank the useful discussions with Prof. S. Yamada on extracting Suzaku spectrum. We thank the high-density model provided by Dr. John A. Tomsick. We thank the valuable discussions with Dr. Erlin Qiao. We also thank the reviewer for her valuable comments. Lijun Gou is supported by the National Program on Key Research and Development Project through grant No. 2016YFA0400804, and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China with grant No. U1838114, and by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences through grant No. XDB23040100. This research has made use of data obtained from the Suzaku satellite, a collaborative mission between the space agencies of Japan (JAXA) and the USA (NASA), and also has made use of standard data products obtained from the RXTE satellite and the RXTE Guest Observer Facility (GOF). This research has made use of data and/or software provided by the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Centre (HEASARC), which is a service of the Astrophysics Science Division at NASA/GSFC and the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

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Accepted Version - 2002.03315.pdf

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Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023