Spinning Between Models: Continuum and Reflection Constraints in the Intermediate States of GRS 1716-249 and GRS 1739-278
Abstract
Measurements of stellar-mass black hole spin probe accretion under strong gravity and constrain black hole formation and evolution. Intermediate states, in which thermal disk, coronal, and reflection emission all contribute significantly, are particularly complex environments for spin measurements and useful for probing spectral-modeling systematics. We investigate these effects using paired, non-simultaneous Swift/XRT and NuSTAR observations of GRS 1716-249 and GRS 1739-278. We jointly model the spectra with kerrbb and relxillCp, linking or separately varying their spin parameters, and explore the parameter space with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis. Within the adopted model, GRS 1716 strongly favors a high spin, whereas the GRS 1739 data allow high- and low-spin solutions with nearly identical fit statistics. Parameter-stepping experiments show that coordinated changes among parameters allow substantially different physical configurations to produce nearly indistinguishable spectra. For these datasets and within the adopted model, energy-band tests show that the Fe band provides the strongest direct sensitivity to the inferred spin, while the Compton hump helps constrain reflection parameters and the soft X-ray band characterizes the underlying continuum. When both the disk continuum and reflection components are adequately constrained, their associated spin parameters can favor a common solution within the joint model. With weaker constraints, the model permits statistically comparable solutions spanning nearly the full range of spins. Robust joint continuum and reflection spin inference requires broadband coverage, independent binary constraints, physically self-consistent models, and thorough exploration of parameter space.
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BibTeX
@misc{tausch2026spinning,
title = {{Spinning Between Models: Continuum and Reflection Constraints in the Intermediate States of GRS 1716-249 and GRS 1739-278}},
author = {Tiffany Tausch and Paul A. Draghis and Erin Kara and Abderahmen Zoghbi and Laura Brenneman and Anna Ogorzalek and John A. Tomsick and Mark Reynolds and Javier Garcia and Riley Connors},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.13372},
eprint = {2609.13372},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.13372},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Spinning Between Models: Continuum and Reflection Constraints in the Intermediate States of GRS 1716-249 and GRS 1739-278
AU - Tiffany Tausch
AU - Paul A. Draghis
AU - Erin Kara
AU - Abderahmen Zoghbi
AU - Laura Brenneman
AU - Anna Ogorzalek
AU - John A. Tomsick
AU - Mark Reynolds
AU - Javier Garcia
AU - Riley Connors
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/11
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.13372
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.13372
AB - Measurements of stellar-mass black hole spin probe accretion under strong gravity and constrain black hole formation and evolution. Intermediate states, in which thermal disk, coronal, and reflection emission all contribute significantly, are particularly complex environments for spin measurements and useful for probing spectral-modeling systematics. We investigate these effects using paired, non-simultaneous Swift/XRT and NuSTAR observations of GRS 1716-249 and GRS 1739-278. We jointly model the spectra with kerrbb and relxillCp, linking or separately varying their spin parameters, and explore the parameter space with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis. Within the adopted model, GRS 1716 strongly favors a high spin, whereas the GRS 1739 data allow high- and low-spin solutions with nearly identical fit statistics. Parameter-stepping experiments show that coordinated changes among parameters allow substantially different physical configurations to produce nearly indistinguishable spectra. For these datasets and within the adopted model, energy-band tests show that the Fe band provides the strongest direct sensitivity to the inferred spin, while the Compton hump helps constrain reflection parameters and the soft X-ray band characterizes the underlying continuum. When both the disk continuum and reflection components are adequately constrained, their associated spin parameters can favor a common solution within the joint model. With weaker constraints, the model permits statistically comparable solutions spanning nearly the full range of spins. Robust joint continuum and reflection spin inference requires broadband coverage, independent binary constraints, physically self-consistent models, and thorough exploration of parameter space.
ER -