Detection of low-frequency breaks in power density spectrum of GX 339-4 in faint low/hard state observations using AstroSat data

TL;DR

This study analyzes AstroSat data of GX 339-4 during faint low/hard states in 2017 and 2019, detecting low-frequency breaks in the power density spectrum and estimating accretion disk truncation radii.

Contribution

It presents the first detection of low-frequency breaks in the PDS of GX 339-4 in faint states using AstroSat, linking break frequencies to disk truncation.

Findings

Low-frequency breaks at 6 mHz (2017) and 11 mHz (2019) detected.

Weak reflection features observed, indicating disk irradiation.

Estimated truncation radii of ~93 and ~61 gravitational radii.

Abstract

We present the spectro-timing analysis of the black hole binary system GX 339-4 using AstroSat data extracted at the beginning of outbursts in 2017 and 2019. The joint spectral fitting of LAXPC and SXT data revealed that the source was in a faint low/hard state for both 2017 and 2019 observations with a nearly equal photon index of $\sim$1.57 and $\sim$1.58 and with Eddington ratio, $L/L_{Edd}$, of 0.0011 and 0.0046 respectively. The addition of a reflection component into the spectral modelling improved the fit ($\Delta\chi^2$ $\approx~6$ for 2017 and $\Delta\chi^2$ $\approx~7$ for 2019), pointing towards the presence of weak reflection features arising due to irradiation of the accretion disk. The power density spectrum (PDS) consisted of strong band-limited noise with a break at low frequencies, described with a combination of few zero-centered Lorentzian. The fitting revealed a low-frequency break at $\sim$6~mHz for 2017 and at $\sim$11~mHz for 2019 observation, whose detection is validated by results from independent detectors (LAXPCs and SXT). The break frequency is roughly consistent with results obtained from earlier observations that showed an evolution of the frequency with flux, which is in accordance with the truncated disk model. Associating the break frequency with viscous time scale of the accretion disk, we estimated a truncation radius of $\sim$93 and $\sim$61 gravitational radius for 2017 and 2019 observation, respectively.