Evolution of the 0.01–25 Hz power spectral components in Cygnus X-1

Stockholm Observatory, AlbaNova, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden e-mail: magnusa@astro.su.se; luis@astro.su.se

Received: 12 November 2004
Accepted: 2 April 2005

Abstract

Analyzing the archival data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), we study the power density spectra (PDS) of Cygnus X-1 from 1996 to 2003 in the frequency range of 0.01–25 Hz. Using a model consisting of one or two Lorentzians and/or an exponentially cut-off power-law, we are able to achieve a good fit to the PDS during the observations. With our model we are also able to track the evolution of the Lorentzian components through all spectral states of the source. We confirm the relation between characteristic frequencies seen both in black hole candidate and neutron star sources, and show the changes in this relation during the transitional and soft states of the source. The connection between the Lorentzian components is investigated by analyzing similarities and differences in their behavior. We find that the spectral state of the source can be uniquely determined from the parameters of these components. The parameter correlations can all be described by continuous functions, which differ between components. We discuss our results in the context of relativistic precession model for the accretion disk, and show a remarkable agreement between the model prediction and the data in the hard state. We estimate a value for the specific angular momentum of (-0.57) in the case of prograde (retrograde) rotation and an estimate for the inner radius of 22 to 50 (25 to 55) gravitational radii. Additional assumptions are required to explain the soft state data, and attempting to invoke rotational reversal for state transitions shows that it is insufficient to explain the differences between the hard and soft state data.