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J.A. Tomsick (Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California, San Diego), P. Kaaret (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
We will present results of Chandra and RXTE observations of the black hole candidate XTE J1550-564 made during the decay of its last X-ray outburst. Our observations were made over a period of 118 days and allow us to study the X-ray properties at flux levels between 1E-13 erg cm-2 s-1 and 5E-9 erg cm-2 s-1 (2-10 keV). A transition in the spectral properties of the system occurred during our observations. Although significant changes in the X-ray properties occurred, the transition did not disrupt the smooth exponential flux decay that lasted for over 30 days. The spectral evolution continued as the flux decayed after the transition. It is likely that the source was close to quiescence during the Chandra observations, and this work has implications for understanding the origin of the X-ray emission from black hole candidate X-ray transients in quiescence.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: jtomsick@ucsd.edu