Rapid X-ray variability of the superluminal source GRS 1915+105

Abstract

The superluminal X-ray transient source GRS 1915+105 was observed during July 20-29, 1996 with the Indian X-ray Astronomy Experiment (IXAE) on the Indian satellite IRS-P3 launched on March 21, 1996 from Shriharikota Range in India. During our observations covering the energy band 2-18keV, we have seen strong erratic intensity variations on time scale of 0.1s-10s. Quasi Periodic Oscillations (QPOs) in a frequency range of 0.62 to 0.82Hz were detected with a rms fraction of about 9%. The rapid X-ray intensity variations in GRS 1915+105 are similar to those observed in some other black hole binaries and thus provide further support for the hypothesis that this source is likely to be a black hole. We discuss the possible emission region and mechanism of the observed quasi-periodic oscillations. Comparing the observed QPOs with the ones observed in other neutron star and black-hole systems, we argue that GRS 1915+105 is possibly a black-hole.