Accretion scenario of MAXI J1820+070 during 2018 outbursts with multimission observations

Abstract

ABSTRACT We present a comprehensive spectral and temporal study of the black hole X-ray transient MAXI J1820+070 during its outbursts in 2018 using Swift/XRT, NICER, NuSTAR, and AstroSat observations. The Swift/XRT and NICER spectral study shows a plateau in the light curve with spectral softening (hardness changes from $\sim \, 2.5$ to 2) followed by a gradual decline without spectral softening during the first outburst. Also, spectral modelling suggests that the first outburst is in the low/hard state throughout with a truncated disc, whereas the thermal disc emission dominates during the second outburst. During the entire outburst, strong reflection signature (reflection fraction varies in the range $\sim \, 0.38\!-\!3.8$) is observed in the simultaneous wideband (NICER–NuSTAR, XRT–NuSTAR, AstroSat) data due to the presence of a dynamically evolving corona. The NICER timing analysis shows quasi-periodic oscillation signatures and the characteristic frequency increases (decreases) in the plateau (decline) phase with time during the first outburst. We understand that the reduction of the electron cooling time-scale in the corona due to spectral softening and the resonance oscillation with the local dynamical time-scale may explain the above behaviour of the source during the outburst. Also, we propose a possible scenario of outburst triggering and the associated accretion geometry of the source.