Published January 1, 2021 | Version v1
Journal article

A Variable Ionized Disk Wind in the Black Hole Candidate EXO 1846–031

  • 1. Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Observatoire astronomique de Strasbourg, UMR 7550, F-67000 Strasbourg (France)
  • 2. Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Kepler Center for Astro and Particle Physics, Eberhard Karls Universität, Sand 1, D-72076 Tübingen (Germany)
  • 3. Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
  • 4. Dr Karl Remeis-Observatory and Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Sternwartstr. 7, D-96049 Bamberg (Germany)
  • 5. Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, PO Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen (Netherlands)
  • 6. Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG (United Kingdom)
  • 7. Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19B Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049 (China)
  • 8. Physics & Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire SO17 1BJ (United Kingdom)

Description

After 34 yr, the black hole candidate EXO 1846–031 went into outburst again in 2019. We investigate its spectral properties in the hard intermediate and the soft states with NuSTAR and Insight-HXMT. A reflection component has been detected in the two spectral states but possibly originating from different illumination spectra: in the intermediate state, the illuminating source is attributed to a hard coronal component, which has been commonly observed in other X-ray binaries, whereas in the soft state, the reflection is probably produced by disk self-irradiation. Both cases support EXO 1846–031 as a low-inclination system of 40 . An absorption line is clearly detected at ∼7.2 keV in the hard intermediate state, corresponding to a highly ionized disk wind ( l o g ξ > 6.1) with a velocity of up to 0.06c. Meanwhile, quasi-simultaneous radio emissions have been detected before and after the X-rays, implying the coexistence of disk winds and jets in this system. If only the high-flux segment of the NuSTAR observation is considered, the observed wind appears to be magnetically driven. The absorption line disappeared in the soft state and a narrow emission line appeared at ∼6.7 keV on top of the reflection component, which may be evidence for disk winds, but data with higher spectral resolution are required to examine this.

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/abc55e

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Astrophysical Journal
Journal Volume
906
Journal Issue
1
Journal Page Range
[11 p.]
ISSN
0004-637X
CODEN
ASJOAB