Quasi-periodic Oscillations in GX 339−4 during the 2021 Outburst Observed with Insight-HXMT

Abstract

A new outburst of GX 339−4 in 2021 was monitored by the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT). By using the data of Insight-HXMT from 2021 February to March, we make an X-ray timing analysis of this new outburst. Based on the results of the count rates, hardness–intensity diagram, and power density spectrum (PDS), we confirm that the source exhibits spectral transitions from the low-hard state (LHS) to the hard-intermediate state (HIMS). During the transition from the LHS to the HIMS, low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are detected in the PDS. We found that these QPOs are all type C QPOs with centroid frequencies evolving from 0.1 to 0.6 Hz in the LHS and in the 1–3 Hz frequency range in HIMS. The QPO features above 50 keV are reported for the first time in this black hole by Insight-HXMT. The QPO rms stays stable with time but decreases with energy at a higher energy above ∼10 keV. We also find that the phase lag of the type C QPO is close to zero in the early outburst stage but becomes positive as the outburst evolves, with a hard lag of ∼0.6–1.2 rad in 50–100 keV. The implications of the phase lag in high energy bands and the possible physical mechanisms to explain those observations are also discussed.

Keywords

• Black hole physics
• X-ray binary stars
• Stellar accretion disks