The 2009 outburst of H~1743-322 as observed by RXTE

TL;DR

This study analyzes RXTE observations of the 2009 outburst of H1743-322, revealing a partial state transition, disk-corona interactions, and comparisons with previous outbursts to understand black hole accretion behavior.

Contribution

It provides detailed spectral and timing analysis of the 2009 outburst, highlighting the incomplete state transition and the interplay between disk and corona emissions in black hole X-ray binaries.

Findings

The 2009 outburst shows a counter-clockwise q-track in the HID.

The inner disk radius is closer to the black hole during the low/hard state.

The corona and disk contributions are balanced, preventing a full state transition.

Abstract

We analyze the RXTE observations of the 2009 outburst of H~1743-322, as well as the observations of the previous five outbursts for comparison. The hardness-intensity diagram (HID) shows a complete counter-clockwise q-track for the 2009 outburst and, interestingly, the track falls in} between a huge one in 2003, with a complete transition to high/soft state, and that of} the failed outburst in 2008. It leaves the low/hard state but does not reach the leftmost edge of the overall HID. While the lowest hardness (6--19 keV/3--6 keV) values} in the HID is about 0.3--0.4 for the 2009 outburst, similar to the ``failed state transition" seen in the persistent black hole XRB Cyg X-1, the timing analysis shows that a transition to the high soft state occurred. During the low/hard state of the 2009 outburst, the inner radius of the accretion disk is found to be closer to the central black hole and have an anti-correlation with the disk temperature. These results may be understood as the reprocessing} of the hot corona on the disk's} soft X-rays, which can lead to an underestimation of the inner radius of the accretion disk. In the luminosity diagram of the corona versus the disk, the tracks of the outbursts} in 2003 and 2009 cross the line which represents a roughly equal contribution to the entire emission from the thermal and the non-thermal components;} the track of the 2008 outburst has the turn-over falling} on this line. This may be indicative of an emission balance between the corona and the disk, which prevents the state transition from going further than the low/hard state.