Accretion Flow Properties of GRS 1915+105 During Its $\theta$ Class Using AstroSat Data

TL;DR

This study analyzes the accretion flow properties of GRS 1915+105 during its $ heta$ class using AstroSat data, revealing evolving QPOs, accretion rates, and spectral softening through spectral and timing analysis.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed spectral and timing analysis of GRS 1915+105's $ heta$ class using AstroSat, applying the TCAF model to understand accretion flow evolution.

Findings

Detection of 4-5 Hz QPOs with increasing frequency during $ heta$ class

Increase in Keplerian disk accretion rate with rising flux

Gradual spectral softening observed in the source

Abstract

The Galactic microquasar GRS 1915+105 shows rich variability which is categorized into different classes. In this paper, we report temporal and spectral analysis of GRS 1915+105 to study the properties of the accretion flow when the light curve is showing $\theta$ class variability. For this purpose, we use the LAXPC data from the Target of Opportunity observations of India's first multi-wavelength astronomy satellite AstroSat. The $\theta$ class is marked by the recurrent appearance of U-shaped regions in the light curve, where the photon count rate first decreases rapidly and then increases slowly. For our analysis, we use U-shaped regions of first two orbits (02345 and 02346) on 2016 March 04. In both of the cases, the dynamic Power Density Spectra (PDS) showed significant power at around $4-5$ Hz, suggesting the presence of a low-frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillation (QPO) around that frequency interval. The QPO frequency is found to increase with time when the enhancement of the energy flux also takes place. From the evolution of the spectra, we determine the evolution of the accretion flow parameters in both of these observations. Fitting the spectra with the transonic flow solution based Two-Component Advective Flow (TCAF) model in $4-25$ keV energy band shows that the Keplerian disk accretion rate rises with the rise in the radiation intensity, while the location of the centrifugal pressure driven shock front decreases. In both these data, a gradual increment of power-law photon index with intensity is observed suggesting the progressive softening of the source.