On the outburst evolution of H1743-322: A 2008/2009 comparison

Abstract

We present two observational campaigns performed with the RXTE satellite on the black hole transient H1743-322. The source was observed in outburst on two separate occasions between 2008 October-November and 2009 May-July. We have carried out timing and spectral analysis of the data set, obtaining a complete state classification of all the observations. We find that all the observations are well described by using a spectral model consisting of a disc blackbody, a power law + reflection + absorption and a Gaussian emission component. During the 2009 outburst, the system followed the canonical evolution through all the states seen in black hole transients. In the 2008 outburst only the hard states were reached.The early evolution of the spectral parameters is consistent between the two epochs, and it does not provide clues about the subsequent behaviour of the source. The variation of the flux associated to the two main spectral components (i.e. disc and power law) allows us to set a lower limit to the orbital inclination of the system of ≥43° © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 RAS.