Accretion Flow Properties of MAXI J1910-057/Swift J1910.2-0546 During Its 2012-13 Outburst

TL;DR

This study analyzes the spectral and temporal evolution of the black hole candidate MAXI J1910-057 during its 2012-13 outburst, revealing six spectral states and estimating the black hole's mass and distance using archival X-ray data.

Contribution

It applies the TCAF model to interpret the outburst's spectral state transitions and proposes a connection between outbursts driven by viscosity changes.

Findings

Identified six spectral states during the outburst.

Estimated black hole mass as approximately 10 solar masses.

Determined the source distance to be between 3.4 and 9.6 kpc.

Abstract

Galactic black hole candidate MAXI J1910-057/Swift J1910.2-0546 was simultaneously discovered by MAXI/GSC and Swift/BAT satellites during its first outburst in 2012. We study the detailed spectral and temporal properties of the source in a broad energy range using archival data from Swift/XRT, MAXI/GSC and Swift/BAT satellites/instruments. Low frequency quasi periodic oscillations are observed during the outburst. The combined 1-50 keV spectra are analyzed using the transonic flow solution based Two Component Advective Flow (TCAF) model. Based on the variations of soft and hard X-ray fluxes, their hardness ratios and the variations of the spectral model fitted parameters, we find that the source has evolved through six spectral states. We interpret this spectral state evolution to be a result of two connected outbursts where the leftover matter from a primary outburst is released from the pile-up radius due to a sudden rise of viscosity causing a reflare/secondary outburst. We show a possible configuration of the evolution of accretion flow during the outburst. From the spectral analysis with TCAF model, we estimate the mass of the black hole to be $9.97^{+3.51}_{-3.24}$ $M_\odot$ , and the source distance is estimated to be $3.4-9.6$~kpc from transition luminosity considerations.