IIT Guwahati, multi-institutional team reveal new findings on black hole binary system

Studying black holes directly is challenging because nothing escapes from black holes to be detected or measured.

A multi-institutional research team including the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, UR Rao Satellite Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), University of Mumbai, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research has studied a newly discovered black hole binary system called Swift J1727.8-1613 using data obtained from AstroSat.

The team has discovered intriguing X-ray characteristics that can potentially provide insights into the nature of black holes, IIT Guwahati said in a statement.

Studying black holes directly is challenging because nothing escapes from black holes to be detected or measured. However, black hole binaries, where a black hole is paired with another object, such as a normal star, provide a unique opportunity for investigation.

In these binary systems, the black hole's gravity pulls material from its companion star, forming an accretion disk of gas and dust spiralling into the black hole. As the material in the accretion disk is pulled closer to the black hole, it heats up to extremely high temperatures, often millions of degrees, and emits X-rays. These X-rays can be detected using space-based telescopes, providing valuable information about the black hole itself.

The research team recently studied the black hole binary system Swift J1727.8-1613 using AstroSat, India’s first dedicated space astronomy observatory, which is in orbit around the Earth. AstroSat is equipped with instruments capable of observing the universe in multi-wavelengths, including X-rays, making it ideal for studying high-energy phenomena such as black hole binaries.

The researchers detected Quasi-periodic Oscillations (QPOs) in the X-ray light emitted by the accretion disk of Swift J1727.8-1613. Quasi-periodic Oscillations (QPOs) are the flickering of X-ray light from an astronomical object around specific frequencies.

“QPOs are indispensable for investigating mysterious black hole systems. By examining the periodic variations of X-ray photons at high energies (around 100 keV), QPOs help decode the footprints of a black hole’s strong gravity. This aids in understanding their fundamental properties and the dynamics of how the black hole attracts matter from the neighbouring environment,” said Professor Santabrata Das, Department of Physics at IIT Guwahati.

Remarkably, these QPOs changed their frequency over just seven days, shifting from 1.4 to 2.6 times per second. This change of frequency is observed in extremely high-energy X-rays, which are incredibly hot, around a billion degrees.

The implications of this discovery are profound. QPOs can help astronomers study the inner regions of accretion disks and determine the masses and spin periods of black holes. They can also test Einstein's theory of general relativity, which describes gravity as a geometric property of space and time.

According to this theory, massive objects like black holes start to warp the fabric of spacetime around them, and this curvature dictates the paths that accreting matter will follow, which we perceive as gravitational attraction.