Phase-resolved Spectroscopy of Low-frequency Quasi-periodic Oscillations from the Newly Discovered Black Hole X-ray Binary Swift J1727.8-1613

TL;DR

This study uses phase-resolved spectroscopy with multiple X-ray observatories to analyze low-frequency QPOs in a newly discovered black hole binary, revealing spectral component variations and supporting a geometric origin of the QPOs.

Contribution

It introduces a novel phase-resolved spectral analysis of LFQPOs in Swift J1727.8-1613 using multi-instrument data, providing new insights into the spectral variability and origin of QPOs.

Findings

Both thermal and non-thermal spectral components vary with QPO phase.

Disk temperature variations lead flux changes by about half a QPO cycle.

Results support a geometric model for type-C QPO variability.

Abstract

Low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (LFQPOs) are commonly observed in X-ray light curves of black hole X-ray binaries (BHXRBs); however, their origin remains a topic of debate. In order to thoroughly investigate variations in spectral properties on the QPO timescale, we utilized the Hilbert-Huang transform technique to conduct phase-resolved spectroscopy across a broad energy band for LFQPOs in the newly discovered BHXRB Swift J1727.8-1613. This is achieved through quasi-simultaneous observations from Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER), Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR), and Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT). Our analysis reveals that both the non-thermal and disk-blackbody components exhibit variations on the QPO timescale, with the former dominating the QPO variability. For the spectral parameters, we observe modulation of the disk temperature, spectral indices, and reflection fraction with the QPO phase with high statistical significance (>5\sigma). Notably, the variation in the disk temperature is found to precede the variations in the non-thermal and disk fluxes by ~0.4-0.5 QPO cycles. We suggest that these findings offer further evidence that the type-C QPO variability is a result of geometric effects of the accretion flow.