THE IDENTIFICATION OF MAXI J1659-152 AS A BLACK HOLE CANDIDATE

We report on the analysis of all 65 pointed Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observations of the recently discovered soft X-ray transient MAXI J1659-152 (initially referred to as GRB 100925A). The source was studied in terms of its evolution through the hardness-intensity diagram (HID), as well as...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kalamkar, M. (Author), Altamirano, D. (Author), van der Klis, M. (Author), Casella, P. (Author), Homan, Jeroen (Contributor), Linares Alegret, Manuel (Contributor)
Other Authors: MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing, 2015-02-27T15:48:05Z.
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Online Access:Get fulltext
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042 |a dc 
100 1 0 |a Kalamkar, M.  |e author 
100 1 0 |a MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Homan, Jeroen  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Linares Alegret, Manuel  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Altamirano, D.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a van der Klis, M.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Casella, P.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Homan, Jeroen  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Linares Alegret, Manuel  |e author 
245 0 0 |a THE IDENTIFICATION OF MAXI J1659-152 AS A BLACK HOLE CANDIDATE 
260 |b IOP Publishing,   |c 2015-02-27T15:48:05Z. 
856 |z Get fulltext  |u http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95724 
520 |a We report on the analysis of all 65 pointed Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observations of the recently discovered soft X-ray transient MAXI J1659-152 (initially referred to as GRB 100925A). The source was studied in terms of its evolution through the hardness-intensity diagram (HID), as well as its X-ray variability properties. MAXI J1659-152 traced out a counterclockwise loop in the HID, which is commonly seen in transient low-mass X-ray binaries. The variability properties of the source, in particular the detection of type-B and type-C low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations, and the way they evolve along the HID track, indicate that MAXI J1659-152 is a black hole candidate. The spectral and variability properties of MAXI J1659-152 imply that the source was observed in the hard and soft intermediate states during the RXTE observations, with several transitions between these two states. 
520 |a NWO of the Netherlands (Rubicon Fellowship) 
546 |a en_US 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t The Astrophysical Journal. Letters