Correlated X-ray Spectral and Timing Behavior of the Black Hole Candidate XTE J1550-564: A New Interpretation of Black Hole States

We present an analysis of RXTE data of the X-ray transient XTE J1550-564. The source went through several states, which were divided into spectrally soft and hard states. These states showed up as distinct branches in the color-color diagram, forming a structure with a comb-like topology; the soft state branch forming the spine and the hard state branches forming the teeth. Variability was strongly correlated with the position on the branches. The broad band noise became stronger, and changed from power law like to band limited, as the spectrum became harder. Three types of QPOs were found: 1-18 Hz and 102-284 Hz QPOs on the hard branches, and 16-18 Hz QPOs on and near the soft branch. The frequencies of the high and low frequency QPOs on the hard branches were correlated with each other, and anti-correlated with spectral hardness. The changes in QPO frequency suggest that the inner disc radius only increases by a factor of 3-4 as the source changes from a soft to a hard state. Our results on XTE J1550-564 strongly favor a 2-dimensional description of black hole behavior, where the regions near the spine of the comb in the color-color diagram can be identified with the high state, and the teeth with transitions from the high state, via the intermediate state (which includes the very high state) to the low state, and back. The two physical parameters underlying this behavior vary to a large extent independently and could for example be the mass accretion rate through the disk and the size of a Comptonizing region.