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The black hole candidate and X-ray binary MAXI J1535-571 was discovered in September 2017. During the decay of its discovery outburst, and before returning to quiescence, the source underwent at least four reflaring events, with peak luminosities of $\sim$10$^{35-36}$ erg s$^{-1}$ (d/4.1 kpc)$^2$. To investigate the nature of these flares, we analysed a sample of NICER observations taken with almost daily cadence. In this work we present the detailed spectral and timing analysis of the evolution of the four reflares. The higher sensitivity of NICER at lower energies, in comparison with other X-ray detectors, allowed us to constrain the disc component of the spectrum at $\sim$0.5 keV. We found that during each reflare the source appears to trace out a q-shaped track in the hardness-intensity diagram similar to those observed in black hole binaries during full outbursts. MAXI J1535-571 transits between the hard state (valleys) and softer states (peaks) during these flares. Moreover, the Comptonised component is undetected at the peak of the first reflare, while the disc component is undetected during the valleys. Assuming the most likely distance of 4.1 kpc, we find that the hard-to-soft transitions take place at the lowest luminosities ever observed in a black hole transient, while the soft-to-hard transitions occur at some of the lowest luminosities ever reported for such systems., Accepted for publication in MNRAS main journal

We present Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer X-ray and Arcminute Microkelvin Imager Large Array radio observations of a rapid hard-to-soft state transition in the black hole X-ray transient MAXI J1820+070. During the transition from the hard state to the soft state a switch between two particular types of quasiperiodic oscillations (QPOs) was seen in the X-ray power density spectra, from type-C to type-B, along with a drop in the strength of the broadband X-ray variability and a brief flare in the 7-12 keV band. Soon after this switch (~1.5-2.5 hr) a strong radio flare was observed that corresponded to the launch of superluminal ejecta. Although hints of a connection between QPO transitions and radio flares have been seen in other black hole X-ray transients, our observations constitute the strongest observational evidence to date for a link between the appearance of type-B QPOs and the launch of discrete jet ejections., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

This paper describes the design and implementation of Stingray, a library in Python built to perform time series analysis and related tasks on astronomical light curves. Its core functionality comprises a range of Fourier analysis techniques commonly used in spectral-timing analysis, as well as extensions for analyzing pulsar data, simulating data sets, and statistical modeling. Its modular build allows for easy extensions and incorporation of its methods into data analysis workflows and pipelines. We aim for the library to be a platform for the implementation of future spectral-timing techniques. Here, we describe the overall vision and framework, core functionality, extensions, and connections to high-level command-line and graphical interfaces. The code is well-tested, with a test coverage of currently 95%, and is accompanied by extensive API documentation and a set of step-by-step tutorials., 16 pages, 6 figures; published in ApJ Vol 881, No 1

The geometry of the accretion flow around stellar-mass black holes can change on timescales of days to months. When a black hole emerges from quiescence (that is, it "turns on" after accreting material from its companion) it has a very hard (high-energy) X-ray spectrum produced by a hot corona positioned above its accretion disk, and then transitions to a soft (lower-energy) spectrum dominated by emission from the geometrically thin accretion disk, which extends to the innermost stable circular orbit. Much debate persists over how this transition occurs and whether it is driven largely by a reduction in the truncation radius of the disk or by a reduction in the spatial extent of the corona. Observations of X-ray reverberation lags in supermassive black-hole systems suggest that the corona is compact and that the disk extends nearly to the central black hole. Observations of stellar-mass black holes, however, reveal equivalent (mass-scaled) reverberation lags that are much larger, leading to the suggestion that the accretion disk in the hard X-ray state of stellar-mass black holes is truncated at a few hundreds of gravitational radii from the black hole. Here we report X-ray observations of the black-hole transient MAXI J1820+070. We find that the reverberation time lags between the continuum-emitting corona and the irradiated accretion disk are 6 to 20 times shorter than previously seen. The timescale of the reverberation lags shortens by an order of magnitude over a period of weeks, whereas the shape of the broadened iron K emission line remains remarkably constant. This suggests a reduction in the spatial extent of the corona, rather than a change in the inner edge of the accretion disk., Published in Nature January 9, 2019

We present the discovery of a low-frequency $\approx 5.7$ Hz quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) feature in observations of the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1535-571 in its soft-intermediate state, obtained in September-October 2017 by the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). The feature is relatively broad (compared to other low-frequency QPOs; quality factor $Q\approx 2$) and weak (1.9% rms in 3-10 keV), and is accompanied by a weak harmonic and low-amplitude broadband noise. These characteristics identify it as a weak Type A/B QPO, similar to ones previously identified in the soft-intermediate state of the transient black hole X-ray binary XTE J1550-564. The lag-energy spectrum of the QPO shows increasing soft lags towards lower energies, approaching 50 ms at 1 keV (with respect to a 3-10 keV continuum). This large phase shift has similar amplitude but opposite sign to that seen in Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer data for a Type B QPO from the transient black hole X-ray binary GX 339-4. Previous phase-resolved spectroscopy analysis of the Type B QPO in GX 339-4 pointed towards a precessing jet-like corona illuminating the accretion disk as the origin of the QPO signal. We suggest that this QPO in MAXI J1535-571 may have the same origin, with the different lag sign depending on the scale height of the emitting region and the observer inclination angle., Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

We present a new spectral-timing technique for phase-resolved spectroscopy and apply it to the low-frequency Type B quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) from the black hole X-ray binary GX 339-4. We show that on the QPO time-scale the spectrum changes not only in normalisation, but also in spectral shape. Using several different spectral models which parameterise the blackbody and power-law components seen in the time-averaged spectrum, we find that both components are required to vary, although the fractional rms amplitude of blackbody emission is small, ~1.4 per cent compared to ~25 per cent for the power-law emission. However the blackbody variation leads the power-law variation by ~0.3 in relative phase (~110 degrees), giving a significant break in the Fourier lag-energy spectrum that our phase-resolved spectral models are able to reproduce. Our results support a geometric interpretation for the QPO variations where the blackbody variation and its phase relation to the power-law are explained by quasi-periodic heating of the approaching and receding sides of the disc by a precessing Comptonising region. The small amplitude of blackbody variations suggests that the Comptonising region producing the QPO has a relatively large scale-height, and may be linked to the base of the jet, as has previously been suggested to explain the binary orbit inclination-dependence of Type B QPO amplitudes., Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 17 pages, 12 figures

The equation of state of cold supra-nuclear-density matter, such as in neutron stars, is an open question in astrophysics. A promising method for constraining the neutron star equation of state is modelling pulse profiles of thermonuclear X-ray burst oscillations from hotspots on accreting neutron stars. The pulse profiles, constructed using spherical and oblate neutron star models, are comparable to what would be observed by a next-generation X-ray timing instrument like ASTROSAT, NICER, or LOFT. In this paper, we showcase the use of an evolutionary optimization algorithm to fit pulse profiles to determine the best-fit masses and radii. By fitting synthetic data, we assess how well the optimization algorithm can recover the input parameters. Multiple Poisson realizations of the synthetic pulse profiles, constructed with 1.6 million counts and no background, were fitted with the Ferret algorithm to analyze both statistical and degeneracy-related uncertainty, and to explore how the goodness-of-fit depends on the input parameters. For the regions of parameter space sampled by our tests, the best-determined parameter is the projected velocity of the spot along the observer's line-of-sight, with an accuracy of $\le3$% compared to the true value and with $\le5$\% statistical uncertainty. The next best-determined are the mass and radius; for a neutron star with a spin frequency of 600\,Hz, the best-fit mass and radius are accurate to $\le5$%, with respective uncertainties of $\le7$% and $\le10$%. The accuracy and precision depend on the observer inclination and spot co-latitude, with values of $\sim1$ % achievable in mass and radius if both the inclination and co-latitude are > 60 degrees., Supplementary online only tables are also available by contacting the authors

Fitting the thermal X-ray spectra of neutron stars (NSs) in quiescent X-ray binaries can constrain the masses and radii of NSs. The effect of undetected hot spots on the spectrum, and thus on the inferred NS mass and radius, has not yet been explored for appropriate atmospheres and spectra. A hot spot would harden the observed spectrum, so that spectral modeling tends to infer radii that are too small. However, a hot spot may also produce detectable pulsations. We simulated the effects of a hot spot on the pulsed fraction and spectrum of the quiescent NSs X5 and X7 in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, using appropriate spectra and beaming for hydrogen atmosphere models, incorporating special and general relativistic effects, and sampling a range of system angles. We searched for pulsations in archival Chandra HRC-S observations of X5 and X7, placing 90\% confidence upper limits on their pulsed fractions below 16\%. We use these pulsation limits to constrain the temperature differential of any hot spots, and to then constrain the effects of possible hot spots on the X-ray spectrum and the inferred radius from spectral fitting. We find that hot spots below our pulsation limit could bias the spectroscopically inferred radius downward by up to 28\%. For Cen X-4 (which has deeper published pulsation searches), an undetected hot spot could bias its inferred radius downward by up to 10\%. Improving constraints on pulsations from quiescent LMXBs may be essential for progress in constraining their radii., Comment: Accepted in ApJ, 13 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables