The Hard X-ray Spectral Evolution in XRBs, AGNs and ULXs

TL;DR

This study investigates the spectral evolution of X-ray binaries, AGNs, and ULXs, revealing correlations between photon index and Eddington ratio that suggest different accretion modes and estimating intermediate-mass black hole sizes in ULXs.

Contribution

It identifies distinct spectral correlations linked to accretion states across different sources and constrains ULX black hole masses to be around 10^4 solar masses.

Findings

Anti-correlation between photon index and Eddington ratio in low accretion states.

Positive correlation in high accretion states across XRBs, LLAGNs, and QSOs.

ULX black hole masses estimated to be around 10^4 solar masses.

Abstract

We explore the relationship between the hard X-ray photon index $\Gamma$ and the Eddington ratio (\xi=L_{X}(0.5-25 keV)/L_{Edd}) in six XRBs. We find that different XRBs follow different anti-correlations between $\Gamma$ and $\xi$ when $\xi$ is less than a critical value, while they follow the same positive correlation when $\xi$ is larger than the critical value. This anti-correlation and positive correlation are also found in LLAGNs and QSOs respectively, and the anti-correlation and positive correlation of different XRBs roughly converge to the same point ($\log \xi=-2.1, \Gamma=1.5$), which may correspond to the accretion mode transition, since that the anti-correlation and positive correlation are consistent with the prediction of ADAFs and standard disk/corona system respectively. The traditional low/hard state are divided into two parts by the cross point $\log \xi\sim-2.1$, i.e., faint-hard state in the anti-correlation part and bright-hard state in the positive correlation part. The accretion process in the bright-hard state may be still the standard accretion disk as that in the high/soft state, which is consistent with that both the cold disk component and broad Fe K emission line are observed in some bright-hard state of XRBs. The ADAF is only important in the faint-hard state XRBs. Motivated by the similarities of the state transition and timing properties of the ULXs to that of XRBs, we then constrain the BH masses for seven luminous ULXs assuming that their X-ray spectral evolution is similar to that of XRBs. We find that the BH masses of these seven ULXs are around $10^{4}M_sun$, which are typical intermediate mass BHs (IMBHs). Our results are roughly consistent with the BH masses constrained from the model fitting with a multi-color disk and/or the timing properties(e.g., QPO and break frequency).