Professor Rob Fender

Abstract:

Circinus X-1 is a neutron star X-ray binary system with an interesting and at times puzzling behaviour over a broad range of frequencies, specifically in the X-ray and radio bands. The system seems to harbour the most relativistic outflow (likely oriented close to the line of sight) observed so far within the Milky Way. It lies within a radio synchrotron nebula and has variable radio flux densities at cm wavelengths. The radio flares associated to the orbital phase zero reached up to 1 Jy in the late '70s, then have been observed at the tens of mJy level until recently; in 2007 January, Circinus X-1 seemed to have entered a very active radio flaring state. Here we present a sample of the 4.8 and 8.6 GHz radio observations made with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, covering 10 years time period. The entire data set comprised 41 epochs, unequally spread in time between 1996 and 2006. We investigate the long-term changes in the brightness, morphology and spectrum of the radio structures. We have detected linear polarisation in a third of the epochs and a good case for Faraday rotation in one epoch. The analysis reveals structural changes in the radio emission at time scales as short as days. Clear evidence for a counter-jet was found in a few epochs.

Abstract:

We report the discovery with the RXTE/PCA of twin kHz QPOs in Cir X-1. Eleven cases of simultaneous double QPOs occurred, with significances of up to 6.3 and 5.5 sigma and centroid frequencies ranging between approximately 56-225 and 230-500 Hz for the two QPO peaks, respectively, i.e., for the most part at frequencies well below those of other sources. The QPO properties clearly indicate that these double peaks are the kHz QPOs known from low magnetic field neutron stars, and not black-hole high-frequency QPOs, confirming that Cir X-1 is a neutron star. The kHz QPO peak separation varies over a wide range, \~175-340 Hz, and increases with QPO frequency. This is contrary to what is seen in other sources but agrees with predictions of the relativistic precession model and Alfven wave models; beat-frequency models require modification to accommodate this. In other observations single kHz QPOs can be seen down to frequencies as low as ~12 Hz, as well as a strong low-frequency (LF) QPO between 1 and 30 Hz. The relations between the frequencies of the kHz QPOs and the LF QPO are in good agreement with those found previously in Z sources, confirming that Cir X-1 may be a peculiar Z source. We suggest that the low frequencies of the kHz QPOs in Cir X-1 and to a lesser extent in (other) Z sources might be due to a relatively stronger radial inflow to the neutron star than in other kHz QPO sources.