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Optical spectroscopy of GX 339-4 during the high-soft and low-hard states - I

Soria, R; Wu, K; Johnston, HM; (1999) Optical spectroscopy of GX 339-4 during the high-soft and low-hard states - I. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , 310 (1) 71 - 77. 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.02933.x. Green open access

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Abstract

We carried out spectroscopic observations of the candidate black hole binary GX 339−4 during its low–hard and high–soft X-ray states. We have found that the spectrum is dominated by emission lines of neutral elements with asymmetric, round-topped profiles in the low–hard state. In the high–soft state, however, the emission lines from both neutral and ionized elements have unambiguously resolved double-peaked profiles. The detection of double-peaked emission lines in the high–soft state, with a larger peak separation for higher ionization lines, indicates the presence of an irradiatively heated accretion disc. The round-topped lines in the low–hard state are probably caused by a dense matter outflow from an inflated non-Keplerian accretion disc. Our data do not show velocity modulations of the line centres caused by the orbital motion of the compact object, neither do the line basewidths show substantial variations in each observational epoch. There are no detectable absorption lines from the companion star. All these features are consistent with those of a system with a low-mass companion star and low orbital inclination.

Type: Article
Title: Optical spectroscopy of GX 339-4 during the high-soft and low-hard states - I
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.02933.x
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.02933.x
Language: English
Additional information: © 1999 RAS Definitive versions of articles pre-2013 are available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2966, now published by http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/51269
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