Soft lags in neutron star kHz Quasi Periodic Oscillations: evidence for reverberation?

TL;DR

This study detects soft reverberation lags in neutron star kHz QPOs, supporting the idea that these lags result from reflection of X-ray emission on the accretion disk, with lag characteristics linked to disk geometry.

Contribution

It provides the first evidence of reverberation lags in neutron star kHz QPOs and links lag behavior to changes in the inner disk radius.

Findings

Soft lags of 15-40 microseconds detected between 565-890 Hz.

Lag energy spectrum shows a feature around the iron line.

Inner disk radius decreases with increasing QPO frequency.

Abstract

High frequency soft reverberation lags have now been detected from stellar mass and super massive black holes. Their interpretation involves reflection of a hard source of photons onto an accretion disk, producing a delayed reflected emission, with a time lag consistent with the light travel time between the irradiating source and the disk. Independently of the location of the clock, the kHz Quasi-Periodic Oscillation (QPO) emission is thought to arise from the neutron star boundary layer. Here, we search for the signature of reverberation of the kHz QPO emission, by measuring the soft lags and the lag energy spectrum of the lower kHz QPOs from 4U1608-52. Soft lags, ranging from ~15 to ~40 microseconds, between the 3-8 keV and 8-30 keV modulated emissions are detected between 565 and 890 Hz. The soft lags are not constant with frequency and show a smooth decrease between 680 Hz and 890 Hz. The broad band X-ray spectrum is modeled as the sum of a disk and a thermal comptonized component, plus a broad iron line, expected from reflection. The spectral parameters follow a smooth relationship with the QPO frequency, in particular the fitted inner disk radius decreases steadily with frequency. Both the bump around the iron line in the lag energy spectrum, and the consistency between the lag changes and the inferred changes of the inner disk radius, from either spectral fitting or the QPO frequency, suggest that the soft lags may indeed involve reverberation of the hard pulsating QPO source on the disk.