# Evidence For Advective Flow From Multi-Wavelength Observations Of Nova Muscae

## 1 Introduction

The black hole X-ray binary Nova Muscae ( GS1124-683, GU Mucs ) was discovered 1991 January 9 by both the Ginga and Granat satellites ( Ebisawa et al. 1994; Gilfanov et al. 1993 and references therein). The X-ray spectrum and evolution were similar to other black hole X-ray Novae e.g. A0620-00 ( Elvis et al. 1975). The X-ray luminosity had a rise time of $`3`$ days and then subsequently decreased exponentially with a decay time of $`30`$ days. The source was observed to be in different spectral states during the outburst (Ebisawa et al. 1994). At the peak, the spectrum consisted of a soft component and a hard X-ray power-law with photon spectral index of $`2.5`$. This state lasting till early February has been named the Ultra-soft state. The source was in the Soft state from mid-February to April where the hard X-ray power-law nearly disappeared. There was a transition spectral state during May, which was followed by the Hard state. In the Hard state the spectrum consisted of a hard X-ray power-law with photon spectral index of $`1.5`$ with the soft component nearly absent. Details of these spectral states and the temporal behavior of the source are given by Ebisawa et al. 1994. X-ray observations by Sigma showed that the hard X-ray power-law extended at least till $`600`$ keV whenever the source was detected (Gilfanov et al. 1993). Nova Muscae was also observed by the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) at several epochs during the outburst and once by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) (Cheng et al. 1992). The energy spectral index in the UV band was observed to be $`0.3`$ and the luminosity also decreased exponentially with a decay time of $`43`$ days. Thus Nova Muscae was observed extensively in both optical/UV and X-rays during the outburst.

Subsequent optical observation of the source during quiescence ( April 3 1992) revealed that the mass of the compact object is $`3M_{}`$ ( Remillard, McClintock & Bailyn 1992) confirming that Nova Muscae is a black hole binary. Further extensive observations during February 1993, refined the mass estimate. Ellipsoidal modeling of the light curve indicate that the inclination angle is in the range $`54^o<i<64^o`$ and that the black hole mass lies between $`5.0M_{}<M<7.5M_{}`$ (Orosz et al. 1996). Taking into account the fraction of light from the accretion disk and the spectral type of the secondary star, Orosz et al. 1996 estimate the distance to the source to be $`D=5.5\pm 1`$ kpc. With these constrains and the extensive UV and X-ray observations, Nova Muscae is the ideal source to test theoretical models. The spectral states of Nova Muscae are similar to those of other black hole systems, including persistent sources like Cygnus X-1. Thus understanding this source will shed light on stellar black hole systems in general.

Recently, two different models have been proposed for Nova Muscae’s Ultra-soft and Soft spectral state by Chakrabarti (1997) and Esin, McClintock, & Narayan ( 1997). In both these models the soft component arises from a non-advective keplerian inner disk and the hard component arises from an advective flow. The two models differ as to the location and nature of this advective flow. However, it is not clear if these X-ray models also predict the spectral shape and flux of the observed UV/optical emission during these states.

In this paper, our motivation is to constrain these and other future X-ray models by multi-wavelength analysis. We adopt a black hole mass $`M=6M_{}`$, the inclination angle $`\mu =0.5`$ and distance to the source $`D=5`$ kpc in accordance with the estimates made by Orosz et al. (1996). The UV spectrum is fit as a sum of black body emissions from the outer regions of an accretion disk. We show for self-consistency that scattering does not affect the black body spectrum from this region. This fit fixes the accretion rate at a given epoch. We then use the X-ray flux to infer the radiative fraction $`f`$ defined to be the ratio of the observed radiative luminosity to the luminosity expected from a non-advective keplerian accretion disk. We also place constrains on the location of any inner keplerian disk which in Chakrabarti (1997) and Esin, McClintock, & Narayan ( 1997) models is the source of the soft component.

Cheng et al. (1992) have also modeled the UV/optical emission as black body flux from the outer regions of an accretion disk. They also constrain the disk parameters using the X-ray flux. We have extend their work with several modifications. Unlike Cheng et al. (1992), we allow for the inner region of the accretion disk to be advection dominated. We adopt specific values for $`M`$, $`\mu `$ and $`D`$ instead of treating them like parameters. We also constrain the model using Ginga data ( 1 - 30 keV) rather than only Granat data which was from 3 keV onwards.

In §1 we tabulate the specific observations used for this analysis. In §2 the results are presented while in §4 we constrain and speculate on the source of the soft component. In §5 the paper is summarized and the implications of the main results are discussed.

## 2 The observations

Nova Muscae was observed by the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite at 12 epochs between January 17 and April 22, 1991 and by HST on May 15, 1991 (Cheng et al. 1992). In this paper, we consider four of the IUE and the HST observations covering the different stages of the Nova decay (Table 1). We also consider the CTIO observation on June 7 1991 (Bailyn 1992). Since the spectral energy index for the HST and IUE observations were all close to $`0.3`$, we assume that the spectral index had the same value on June 7.

In the X-ray band, the source was frequently observed from January 8 1991 till October 17 1991 by Ginga ( Ebisawa et al. 1994). Six of these observations were nearly simultaneous with the UV/optical data (Table 1) and have been used in the analysis here. Ebisawa et al. (1994) fit the X-ray data ( 1 - 30 keV) using a multi color disk model and a power law. We have used this best fit spectrum as representative of the data. Observation by Sigma showed that the hard X-ray power-law extended to energies $`>600`$ keV ( Gilfanov et al. 1993). Thus we conservatively assume that the power-law extends to around 500 keV. We calculate the luminosity of the source for $`E>1`$ keV ($`L_X`$) using the multi color disk model spectrum and the hard X-ray power-law extended till 500 keV.

## 3  Results

The optical/UV spectra of Nova Muscae has an energy spectral index of 0.3. This indicates that this radiation is from the outer region of a standard accretion disk with local black body emission ( Cheng et al. 1992). The local effective temperature of the disk is ( Shakura & Sunyaev 1973),

$$T_s(r)7\times 10^7K(\frac{M}{6M_{}})^{1/2}\dot{M}_{20}^{1/4}(\frac{r}{r_s})^{3/4}\chi ^{1/4}$$
(1)   
where, $`\dot{M}_{20}`$ is the mass accretion rate in units of $`10^{20}`$ g s<sup>-1</sup>, $`r_s2GM/c^2`$ and $`\chi =1(3r_s/r)^{1/2}`$. The flux at earth is,

$$F(E)=\frac{4\pi E^3\mu }{h^3c^2D^2}_{r_i}^{r_o}\frac{1}{exp(E/kT)1}r𝑑r\text{ ergs cm}\text{-2}\text{ s}\text{-1}\text{ ergs}\text{-1}$$
(2)   
where $`E`$ is the energy of the photon, $`\mu =`$cos $`i`$, $`i`$ being the inclination angle and $`D`$ is the distance to the source. $`r_o`$ and $`r_i`$ are the outer and inner radii of the accretion disk. It should be noted that $`r_i`$ is defined such that for $`r<r_i`$, Equation (1) is no longer valid. In general the accretion disk may be even optically thick and keplerian for $`r<r_i`$ but scattering and Comptonization become important in this region.

The standard disk radiates as a sum of local black bodies if scattering in the outer layers is negligible. This occurs if the free-free frequency averaged absorption opacity ($`\kappa _{ff}`$) is larger or comparable to the scattering opacity ($`\kappa _{es}=0.4`$ cm<sup>2</sup> g<sup>-1</sup>). In the standard accretion disk theory (Shakura & Sunyaev 1973),

$$\frac{\kappa _{ff}}{\kappa _{es}}1.6\times 10^4\dot{M}_{20}^{1/2}(\frac{M}{10M_{}})^{1/2}(\frac{r}{r_s})^{3/4}>1.0$$
(3)   
Since $`T_s(r_{UV})3\times 10^4`$ K, the above constraint using equation (1), translates to

$$\frac{\kappa _{ff}}{\kappa _{es}}0.3\dot{M}_{20}^{1/4}(\frac{T_s}{3\times 10^4\text{K}})^1>1.0$$
(4)   
Thus scattering does not strongly effect the UV continuum.

The outer regions of the accretion disk could be heated due to X-ray irradiation. Vrtilek et al. 1990 have calculated the spectrum from a disk where the irradiation dominates over gravitational heating. They find that the spectrum is convex shaped with the high energy spectral index being $`4/3`$ and the low energy one $`1/3`$. The spectral transition occurs at the energy $`E_T3kT(r_o)`$ where$`T(r_o)`$ is the temperature of the outer radius of the disk. The transition energy $`E_T`$ depends on the X-ray luminosity of the source. Further, the spectral index varies if a stellar type spectrum (instead of black body) is used for the calculations. The UV emission of Nova Muscae had a spectral index $`0.3`$ with no breaks in the spectrum till $`E10^7`$ ergs at least till May. This will be consistent with the irradiated disk model only if $`T(r_o)>6\times 10^4K`$ all through the observations. Detailed modeling of the irradiated disk with local stellar-like spectrum is needed to confirm or rule out this hypothesis. In this paper we have assumed that irradiation effects are not important which is consistent with the observed spectral shape.

The mass of the black hole, the inclination angle and the distance to the source have been estimated by optical observations during quiescence (Orosz et al. 1996). In accordance with these results we have adopted $`M=6M_{}`$, $`\mu =0.5`$ and $`D=5`$ kpc. Further we have assumed that the outer radius $`r_o=10^{11}`$ cms. Since for all cases considered here, $`kT_s(r_o)<<h\nu _{UV}`$, the results are not sensitive to the value of $`r_o`$ assumed. The optically thick disk emission (Equation 1) also depends upon the accretion rate ($`\dot{M}`$) and $`r_i`$. If $`h\nu _{UV}<<kT_s(r_i)`$, then the UV spectrum determines $`\dot{M}`$ and the X-ray observations constrain $`r_i`$. We show the results of such a fitting in Figure 1. For January 17 the accretion rate turns out to be $`8\times 10^{19}`$ g s<sup>-1</sup> in order to match the UV emission. The minimum value of $`r_i`$, which is not in conflict with the X-ray observations (at $`E=1`$ keV) is $`r_{min}=63r_s`$. In general, $`r_i`$ should be larger than $`r_{min}`$ and the spectrum should flatten somewhere in the energy range $`.01`$ keV $`<E<1`$ keV. Thus, setting $`r_i=r_{min}`$ represents the maximum power the system can generate for $`E<1`$ keV. We find that all through the outburst $`r_{min}`$ varied from $`30`$ to $`65r_s`$.

The total gravitational energy per second that should be released for a keplerian disk in the region $`r<r_i`$ is,

$$L_G(r_i)=L_{GM}[1\frac{9r_s}{r_i}(1\frac{2}{\sqrt{3r_i/r_s}})]$$
(5)   
where $`L_{GM}=\dot{M}c^2/12`$ is the total gravitational energy released. A fraction of this energy is radiated while the rest is advected into the black hole. We define a radiative fraction

$$f=\frac{L_X}{L_G(r_i)}$$
(6)   
where $`L_X`$ is the observed X-ray ($`E>1`$ keV) luminosity of the source. $`f<<1`$ would indicate that the inner regions of the disk is highly advective. Since in general $`r_i>r_{min}`$, the maximum value of this fraction is, $`f_{max}=L_X/L_G(r_{min})`$. The minimum value is obtained by setting $`r_i>>r_s`$ i.e. $`f_{min}=L_X/L_{GM}`$. In Figure 2 we show these limits on $`f`$ for different times of the outburst. Note that $`f`$ is well constrained by these limits and that the result is compatible with $`f0.1`$ for the six epochs. These epochs correspond to the Ultra-soft, Soft and the Soft to Hard transition states. Figure 3 shows the variation of the extremal values of $`f`$ with distance. Solid lines are for $`M=6M_{}`$, while dotted line is for $`M=10M_{}`$.

Figure 4 shows the inferred accretion rate from the UV data. As noted by Cheng et al. (1992), $`\dot{M}`$ varies exponentially with time. We define a normalized rate $`\dot{m}\dot{M}/\dot{M}_{Edd}`$ where $`\dot{M}_{Edd}=4\pi GMm_p/c\sigma _T8.5\times 10^{17}`$ g sec<sup>-1</sup> is the Eddington accretion rate. Nova Muscae was in the Ultra-soft state when $`\dot{m}50`$, in the Soft state for $`50>\dot{m}>2`$ and in the Hard state for $`\dot{m}2`$. At the peak of the outburst $`\dot{m}100`$.

We extrapolate this variation of $`\dot{M}`$ to the Hard state where UV data is not available. We then repeat the analysis using all the X-ray observations made by Ginga ( Ebisawa et al. 1994) i.e. not only the ones listed in Table 1. Figure 5 shows the radiative fraction which has been calculated assuming that the accretion rate decreases exponentially. During the Hard state the fraction is closer to unity while it becomes much less than unity again as the source returns to quiescence. This result depends on the assumption that $`\dot{M}`$ decreased exponentially all through the decay.

## 4 The Soft Component

Since the radiative fraction is close to 10 % for the first 100 days of the outburst, the flow in the inner region is advection dominated. Such advection dominated flows are characterized by nearly free-fall speeds i.e. the radial velocity $`v_rc(r_s/r)^{1/2}`$. In steady state, $`\dot{M}=4\pi rh\rho v_r`$, where $`\rho `$ and $`h`$ are the mass density and local half-height of the disk respectively. Since most of the matter is flowing advectively, this lead to

$$\tau 26.5\dot{M}_{20}(\frac{r}{5r_s})^{1/2}$$
(7)   
where $`\tau `$ is the scattering optical depth in the vertical direction. Thus during the Ultra-soft and Soft states, the inner region of the disk is optically thick. This is surprising since advective flow have generally been modeled to be optically thin and hard X-ray producing regions. The Compton y parameter for such a region is,

$$y5.5\dot{M}_{20}^2(\frac{r}{5r_s})^1(\frac{T}{10^7K})$$
(8)   
At least for the Ultra-soft state, $`y>1`$ which would lead to saturated Comptonization of any external cold photons. The emergent spectrum should be a Wien peak. It is attractive to identify this emission with the soft component observed in the source. However, it is not clear whether the soft component can be fitted to a single temperature Wien peak since the data is well described by a multi-color disk emission (Ebisawa et al. 1994). Perhaps the inner region has temperature variations leading to an emergent spectrum which is a sum of local Wien peaks which might resemble a multi-color disk emission. Moreover, one needs to specify the source of copious soft photons to be Comptonized. Further, the production of hard X-rays has to be incorporated into this model.

The soft component has generally been interpreted as a multi-color disk emission from a keplerian optically thick disk (Ebisawa et al. 1994, Misra & Melia 1997). Ebisawa et al. (1994) fit the data to such a model which has two parameters namely, the color temperature ($`T_c`$) of the innermost radius, and the total luminosity of the component ($`L_s`$). Assuming that $`T_c=T_{eff}`$, where $`T_{eff}`$ is the effective temperature, an empirical inner radius $`r_e`$ can be calculated from $`T_c`$ and $`L_s`$. During the Ultra-soft state $`r_e7\times 10^6`$ cms for $`D=5`$ kpc and $`\mu =0.5`$ (Ebisawa et al. 1997). However, since $`T_c>T_{eff}`$ due to Compton scatterings the physical inner radius $`r_{is}>r_e`$. Defining the color factor $`f_cT_c/T_{eff}`$, $`r_{is}r_ef_c^2`$.

We first consider the case where $`r_{is}3r_s=5.4\times 10^6`$ cms i.e. an keplerian disk which extends till the last stable orbit. This corresponds to the unlikely value of $`f_c1.0`$. Now $`L_sGM\dot{M}_s/2r_{is}`$, where $`\dot{M}_s`$ is the accretion rate in the optically thick disk. Since $`L_s6\times 10^{38}`$ ergs sec<sup>-1</sup> during the peak of the outburst, the maximum $`\dot{M}_s8\times 10^{18}`$ g s<sup>-1</sup>. However, during the peak of the outburst the total accretion rate was $`\dot{M}=8\times 10^{19}`$ g s<sup>-1</sup>. Thus only 10% of the accreting matter is in the form of a keplerian disk. The rest of the accretion must be flowing advectively on top. As mentioned above this overlying flow should be optically thick and should alter the nearly black body emission of the keplerian disk. Such a modification should necessarily lead to $`f_c>1`$. Thus if a keplerian disk is the source of the soft component it is unlikely that it extends till the last stable orbit. Thus models with keplerian disks with overlying corona (Liang & Price 1977, Haardt & Maraschi 1993) do not seem to be applicable to the Ultra-soft state of Nova Muscae.

We now consider the situation when $`r_{is}>3r_s`$. If there is no overlying advective flow, $`r_{is}5.4\times 10^730r_s`$, in order that the power released matches the observed $`L_s`$. In this case, $`f_c3`$. It should be noted that theoretically, $`f_c1.8`$ and is nearly independent of disk parameters (Shimura & Takahara 1992). It is not clear why $`f_c`$ should be greater than this theoretical prediction. The inner accretion disk $`r<30r_s`$ has to be advection dominated with radiative fraction $`f<<0.1`$. Models with an outer keplerian disk with the inner region being advection dominated have been invoked to explain the spectrum of black hole candidates (for e.g. Shapiro, Lightman & Eardley 1976, Misra & Melia 1996, Chakrabarti 1997, Esin, McClintock & Narayan 1997). These models differ in the radiative mechanism producing the hard X-rays, geometry and the presence of shocks in the advective flows. However, the accretion rate used in these models are lower than the one inferred in this paper. For example, Chakrabarti 1997 calculate the spectrum for $`\dot{m}\dot{M}/\dot{M}_{edd}1`$, while the results obtained here imply that $`\dot{m}100`$. Thus, it is not clear if the results of these papers will be valid for such high accretion rates. In particular, as mentioned above $`\dot{m}100`$ implies that the advection dominated disk should be optically thick and not optically thin as has been assumed for these models. The transition from an outer keplerian disk to an inner hot region could be occurring at a radius when the disk is radiation pressure dominated and locally unstable (Shapiro, Lightman & Eardley 1976). This occurs at,

$$r_{tr}350r_s\alpha ^{2/21}(\frac{M}{6M_{}})^{2/3}\dot{M}_{19}^{16/21}$$
(9)   
This is consistent with the results presented here as $`r_{min}50r_s<r_{tr}`$ all through the outburst.

Disks which are advection dominated but optically thick have been studied by Abramowicz et al. (1988) and are called slim accretion disks. These disks have low viscosity and high accretion rates $`\dot{m}>>1`$. Note that $`\dot{m}`$ defined by Abramowicz et al. (1988) is a factor of 16 times greater than the one used here. Abramowicz et al. (1988) calculate that the radiative fraction $`f0.1`$ only for $`\dot{m}>500`$ for $`\alpha =0.001`$, where $`\alpha `$ is the viscosity parameter. Since the normalized accretion rate calculated in this paper, $`\dot{m}100`$ the slim disk model has to be modified to be compatible with these results.

## 5 Summary and Discussion

Optical observations of Nova Muscae during the quiescent state, have constrained the mass of the black hole $`M6M_{}`$, the inclination angle $`\mu 0.5`$ and distance to the source $`D5`$ kpc (Orosz et al. 1996). Using these parameters we find that:

1) The optical/UV spectrum during the outburst can be self-consistently modeled by sum of black body emission from the outer regions of an accretion disk. The accretion rate during the peak of the outburst, $`\dot{M}8\times 10^{19}`$ g sec<sup>-1</sup>. The accretion rate then decreased exponentially with time at least till the source was making a transition from the Soft to the Hard state. The source was in the Ultra-soft state when $`\dot{m}\dot{M}/\dot{M}_{edd}50`$, in the Soft state for $`50>\dot{m}>2`$ and in the Hard state for $`\dot{m}2`$.

2) We define a radiative fraction $`f`$ to be the ratio of the total radiative power emitted to the total expected gravitational power for a standard accretion disk. We find that $`f0.1`$ during the Ultra-soft, Soft and Soft to Hard transition states. The presence of an advective component is implied. If the accretion rate decreased exponentially all through the outburst, $`f`$ increased to $`0.5`$ during the Hard state before finally decreasing to $`0.03`$ as the source returned to the quiescent state.

3) During the peak of the outburst (when the source was in the Ultra-soft state) the high accretion rate ($`\dot{M}8\times 10^{19}`$ g sec<sup>-1</sup>) implies that advective component of the disk has to be optically thick to scattering. The soft component may then have it’s origin in this optically thick but advective zone if there are sufficient external photons to be Comptonized.

4) A keplerian disk if present does not extend to the last stable orbit during the Ultra-soft state. The X-ray soft component emission during the Ultra-soft state could be due to a keplerian disk terminated at a radius $`r30r_s`$, with a highly advective photon-starved flow in the inner region.

We point out that the accretion rate during outburst is $`\dot{m}100`$. The recent models for Nova Muscae (Esin, McClintock & Narayan 1997; Chakrabarti 1997) do not consider such high accretion rates and hence their results cannot be directly compared to those obtained here. Nevertheless the basic picture of these models i.e. an outer keplerian disk with an inner highly advective disk is consistent with the results.

It should be noted that a low radiative fraction does not necessarily mean that the radiative mechanism for the inner disk in inefficient. It could also be possible that the disk dissipates less than a Keplerian one, and most of the gravitational energy is converted to radial motion instead of thermal.

In this paper, we have assumed that the X-ray irradiation effects on the disk are not important. The constancy of the UV spectral index and the absence of a spectral break indicates that this assumption is probably valid. However, more detailed modeling of irradiated disks and broad band spectra are needed before any conclusive statements can be made. The results presented in this paper are based on the observations of the source during the quiescent state and the identification of the UV/optical spectrum (during the outburst) as a sum of black body emission from the outer regions of an accretion disk. Theoretical models for X-ray Nova which do not predict such high accretion rates would need to self-consistently incorporate an alternate explanation for the UV spectrum. We underline the need for more sensitive multi-wavelength observations of future X-ray Nova to confirm the results presented here.

The author thanks F. Melia for useful discussions and comments.