Low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillation in MAXI J1820+070: Revealing distinct Compton and reflection contributions

Abstract

ABSTRACT X-ray low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (LFQPOs) of black hole X-ray binaries, especially those type-C LFQPOs, are representative timing signal of black hole low/hard state and intermediate state, which has been suspected as to originate due to Lense-Thirring precession of the accretion flow. Here we report an analysis of one of the Insight-HXMT observations of the black hole transient MAXI J1820+070 taken near the flux peak of its hard spectral state during which strong type-C LFQPOs were detected in all three instruments up to photon energies above 150 keV. We obtained and analysed the short time-scale X-ray spectra corresponding to high- and low-intensity phases of the observed LFQPO waveform with a spectral model composed of Comptonization and disc reflection components. We found that the normalization of the spectral model is the primary parameter that varied between the low and high-intensity phases. The variation in the LFQPO flux at the hard X-ray band (≳100 keV) is from the Compton component alone, while the energy-dependent variation in the LFQPO flux at lower energies (≲30 keV) is mainly caused by the reflection component with a large reflection fraction in response to the incident Compton component. The observed X-ray LFQPOs thus should be understood as manifesting the original timing signals or beats in the hard Compton component, which gives rise to additional variability in softer energies due to disc reflection.