On the outburst evolution of H1743-322: a 2008/2009 comparison

TL;DR

This study compares two outbursts of the black hole transient H1743-322, analyzing spectral and timing data to understand state evolution and system inclination, revealing differences in outburst behavior and constraining the orbital inclination.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of two outbursts, highlighting differences in state progression and estimating the system's orbital inclination based on spectral component variations.

Findings

2009 outburst followed canonical state evolution

2008 outburst only reached hard states

Lower limit of orbital inclination >= 43 degrees

Abstract

We present two observational campaigns performed with the RXTE satellite on the black hole transient H 1743-322. The source was observed in outburst on two separate occasions between October-November 2008 and May-July 2009. We have carried out timing and spectral analysis of the data set, obtaining a complete state classification of all the observations. We find that all the observations are well described by using a spectral model consisting of a disk-blackbody, a powerlaw + reflection + absorption and a gaussian emission component. During the 2009 outburst the system followed the canonical evolution through all the states seen in black hole transients. In the 2008 outburst only the hard states were reached. The early evolution of the spectral parameters is consistent between the two epochs, and it does not provide clues about the subsequent behavior of the source. The variation of the flux associated to the two main spectral components (i.e. disk and powerlaw) allows us to set a lower limit to the orbital inclination of the system of >= 43{\deg}.