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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Cosmology, Relativity, and Gravity

Wayne State University

2008

Stars

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Initial Measurements Of Black Hole Spin In Gx 339-4 From Suzaku Spectroscopy, J. M. Miller, C. S. Reynolds, A. C. Fabian, E. M. Cackett, G. Miniutti, J. Raymond, D. Steeghs, R. Reis, J. Homan Jun 2008

Initial Measurements Of Black Hole Spin In Gx 339-4 From Suzaku Spectroscopy, J. M. Miller, C. S. Reynolds, A. C. Fabian, E. M. Cackett, G. Miniutti, J. Raymond, D. Steeghs, R. Reis, J. Homan

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research Publications

We report on a deep Suzaku observation of the stellar-mass black hole GX 339-4 in outburst. A clear, strong, relativistically shaped iron emission line from the inner accretion disk is observed. The broadband disk reflection spectrum revealed is one of the most sensitive yet obtained from an accreting black hole. We fit the Suzaku spectra with a physically motivated disk reflection model, blurred by a new relativistic line function in which the black hole spin parameter is a variable. This procedure yielded a black hole spin parameter of a=0.89+/-0.04. Joint modeling of these Suzaku spectra and prior XMM-Newton spectra obtained …


Relativistic Iron Emission Lines In Neutron Star Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries As Probes Of Neutron Star Radii, Edward M. Cackett, Jon M. Miller, Sudip Bhattacharyya, Jonathan E. Grindlay, Jeroen Homan, Michiel Van Der Klis, M. Coleman Miller, Tod E. Strohmayer, Rudy Wijnands Feb 2008

Relativistic Iron Emission Lines In Neutron Star Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries As Probes Of Neutron Star Radii, Edward M. Cackett, Jon M. Miller, Sudip Bhattacharyya, Jonathan E. Grindlay, Jeroen Homan, Michiel Van Der Klis, M. Coleman Miller, Tod E. Strohmayer, Rudy Wijnands

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research Publications

Using Suzaku observations of three neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries (Ser X-1, 4U 1820-30, and GX 349+2) we have found broad, asymmetric, relativistic Fe K emission lines in all three objects. These Fe K lines can be well fit by a model for lines from a relativistic accretion disk (``diskline''), allowing a measurement of the inner radius of the accretion disk and hence an upper limit on the neutron star radius. These upper limits correspond to 14.5-16.5 km for a 1.4 Msolar neutron star. The inner disk radii that we measure with Fe K lines are in good agreement …