Timing Properties and Spectral States in Aquila X‐1

2003

We have analyzed five X-ray outbursts of the neutron-star soft X-ray transient Aql X-1 and investigated the timing properties of the source in correlation with its spectral states as defined by different positions in the color-color and hardness-intensity diagrams. The hard color and the source count rate serve as the distinguishing parameters giving rise to three spectral states: a low-intensity hard state, an intermediate state and a high-intensity soft state. These states are respectively identified with the extreme island, island and banana states that characterize the atoll sources. The large amount of data analyzed allowed us to perform for the first time a detailed timing analysis of…