Estimation of the mass of the black hole candidate MAXI J1659-152 using TCAF and POS models

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Estimation of the mass of the black hole candidate MAXI J1659-152 using TCAF and POS models

Author : Dr Arghajit Jana

Year : 2016

Publisher : Oxford University Press

Source Title : Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Document Type :

Abstract

The Galactic transient black hole candidate (BHC) MAXI J1659-152 exhibited temporal and spectral evolution during its very first X-ray outburst (2010) after its discovery on 2010 September 25. Our recent studies of a few transient BHCs, including MAXI J1659-152, using the Chakrabarti-Titarchuk two-component advective flow (TCAF) solution as an additive table local model in the XSPEC software revealed details of the accretion-flow dynamics around the black holes. The TCAF model-fitted normalization (N) comes out to be almost constant throughout the entire outburst, consisting of several spectral states. We introduce two independent methods to determine the mass (MBH) of the BHC: namely (i) keeping the TCAF fitted normalization parameter in a narrow range and (ii) studying the evolution of the quasi-periodic oscillation frequency (νQPO) with time, fitting with the propagating oscillatory shock (POS) model. The predicted mass ranges of the source with these two methods are 4.7-7.8 M⊙ and 5.1-7.4 M⊙, respectively. Combining the results of these two methods, we obtain a most probable mass range of the source of 4.7-7.8 M⊙ or 6-1.3+1.8 M⊙.