Pulsars, transients and relativistic astrophysics

Abstract:

In this letter, we present a study of orthogonal polarization modes in the radio emission of PSR B1133+16, conducted within the frame of simultaneous, multi-frequency, single-pulse observations. Simultaneously observing at two frequencies (1.41 GHz and 4.85 GHz) provides the means to study the bandwidth of polarization features such as the polarization position angle. We find two main results. First, that there is a high degree of correlation between the polarization modes at the two frequencies. Secondly, the modes occur more equally and the fractional linear polarization decreases towards higher frequencies. We discuss this frequency evolution and propose propagation effects in the pulsar magnetosphere as its origin.

Abstract:

We have accumulated multiwavelength lightcurves for eight black hole X-ray binaries which have been observed to enter a supposed ``soft X-ray transient'' outburst, but which in fact remained in the low/hard state throughout the outburst. Comparison of the lightcurve morphologies, spectral behaviour, properties of the QPOs and the radio jet provides the first study of such objects as a subclass of X-ray transients (XRTs). However, rather than assuming that these hard state XRTs are different from ``canonical'' soft XRTs, we prefer to consider the possibility that a new analysis of both soft and hard state XRTs in a spectral context will provide a model capable of explaining the outburst mechanisms for the majority of black hole X-ray binaries.