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Session 35 - Galactic X-Ray (XTE) Sources.
Display session, Tuesday, January 14
Metropolitan Ballroom,
The lightcurves of GRS 1915+105 observed with RXTE on October 15, 1996 reveal a wide range of transient activity including regular bursts with a recurrence time of about 1 minute, irregular bursts, and dips. Of particular import is the existence of a secondary (and sometime a third) weaker burst immediately following the primary burst. Detailed energy spectra indicate that the source softens during the main outburst. This may imply that the accretion flow has a corona-disk configuration and the energy dissipated in the hot corona becomes relatively smaller during the bursts. The primary burst profile resembles the nonsteady behavior exhibited by the time dependent evolution of accretion disks which are thermally and viscously unstable. The secondary burst may reflect an expansion of the unstable disk region. Similarities with GRO J1744-28 and the Rapid Burster will be discussed.
