A journey from the hard to the soft state: How do QPOs evolve in the 2021 outburst of GX 339-4?

We investigated the snapshots of five NICER observations of the black hole transient GX 339-4 when the source transited from the hard state into the soft state during its outburst in 2021. In this paper, we focused our study on the evolution of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) and noise components using power-density spectra. In addition, we derived hardness ratios by comparing count rates above and below 2 keV. The evolution from the hard to the soft state was a somewhat erratic process, showing several transitions between states that are dominated by top-flat noise and can show type-C QPOs; those that are dominated by red noise and can show type-B QPOs. From the parameters that we studied, we only found a strong correlation between the hardness ratio and the type of QPO observed. This implies that the appearance of type-B QPOs is related to a change in the accretion geometry of the system that also reflects in altered spectral properties. We also observed that the type-B QPO forms from or disintegrates into a broad peaked feature when the source comes out of or goes to the hard intermediate state, respectively. This implies some strong decoherence in the process that creates this feature.

Automated summary

We investigated the evolution of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) and noise components using power-density spectra in five snapshots of NICER observations of the black hole transient GX 339-4 during its transition from the hard state to the soft state. We found a strong correlation between the hardness ratio and the type of QPO observed, suggesting a connection between the accretion geometry and spectral properties. We also observed that the type-B QPO undergoes a decoherence process during the transition between different states.