Van Der Klis Conference KHz-QPOs-2015 PDF

Kilohertz QPOsthe link with the spin
M. van der Klis
Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 1068, 163 (2008); doi: 10.1063/1.3031187

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Kilohertz QPOs the link with the spin
M. van der Klis
Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek
University of Amsterdam
Abstract. The possibility of millisecond neutron star spin periods in LMXBs has been discussed in
earnest since the recycling scenario for the formation of millisecond radio pulsars was first proposed
in the early 1980's. A beat frequency interpretation of the then newly discovered low-frequency
QPOs in Z sources involving millisecond spins was proposed in 1985. After the discovery of the
kHz QPOs in LMXBs with RXTE in 1996, the possibility of a link with the neutron star spin has
been discussed extensively again. The discoveries of the accreting millisecond pulsars from 1998
onward and of kHz QPOs in several of these from 2003 gave further impetus to the debate about to
what extent aperiodic phenomena in LMXBs have a direct link with the spin. I review the current
status of this discussion. Beat frequency models that were originally proposed for the kHz QPOs are
no longer viable. If a relation of the QPO frequencies with the spin exists, then this requires a rather
specific, presumably resonant, interaction of the spin with the accretion flow forcing matter to move
in step with the spin somewhere in the flow. The evidence for a link of the kHz QPOs with neutron
star spin has not over the years become more convincing despite much more data, yet connections
do seem to exist. I suggest that this provides a hint as to how the kHz and other QPO frequencies
arise and what is the optimal approach to satisfactorily describing them as a physical phenomenon.
Keywords: quasi periodic oscillations, pulsars, neutron stars, accretion, low mass X-ray binaries
PACS: 95.85.Nv, 97.60.Gb, 97.60.Jd, 97.80.Jp, 98.70.Qy
1. INTRODUCTION
The kHz QPOs observed in neutron star LMXBs are of great interest as they are thought
to originate from within a few km of the neutron star, and hence to be a diagnostic of
the motion of matter under the influence of strong field gravity. Hence, they might be
used to check on gravity theories and measure neutron star parameters. In this talk I shall
not address these issues directly but instead concentrate on the possibility that the QPO
frequencies that are observed are related to the neutron star spin frequency.
Apart from the millisecond pulsations in the accreting millisecond pulsars (AMPs)
[1] which are the topic of this meeting, RXTE discovered a number of other high fre-
quency phenomena in neutron star LMXBs, including the burst oscillations (Strohmayer,
these proceedings), the twin kHz QPOs that are the focus of this talk [2, 3], the side-
bands to these QPOs [4, 5], hectoHertz QPOs [6] and the enigmatic 410 Hz QPO in
SAX J1808.4-3658 [7]. For the discussion in this paper, the frequencies of (i) the twin
kHz QPOs, (ii) the burst oscillations and (iii) the pulsations take center stage. It is in-
teresting to note that predictions had been made related to each of these phenomena.
Millisecond accreting pulsars were a prediction of the recycling scenario for millisec-
ond radio pulsars [8, 9], short-lived periodic signals at the neutron star spin frequency
during X-ray bursts were predicted by [10] in 1982, and that clumps of matter orbiting
in the accretion disk near the ISCO might produce millisecond wave trains, a possible
CPl 068, A Decade of Accreting Millisecond X-ray Pulsars, Proceedings of the International Workshop
edited by R. Wijnands, D. Altamirano, P. Soleri, N. Degenaar, N. Rea, P. Casella, A. Patruno, and M. Linares
2008 American Institute of Physics 978-0-7354-0599-8/08/$23.00
163
explanation of the kHz QPOs, was discussed by Sunyaev as early as in 1973 [11].
2. BEAT FREQUENCIES
Beat frequencies were already a common ingredient in the interpretation of quasi-
periodic signals from neutron star LMXBs long before the discovery of the kHz QPOs in
1996. Ten years earlier, in a search for millisecond pulsations with EXOSAT in GX 5 -
1, a 15-60 Hz type of QPO had already been discovered (now called the HBO or LF
QPO) [12], that had immediately been proposed to be produced by a beat between the
neutron star spin and the orbital motion at the inner edge of a Keplerian disk [13, 14];
that basic beat-frequency scenario, where a QPO is generated with a frequency equal
to the difference between spin and orbital frequencies actually went back to still earlier
proposals for CVs [15, 16].
With the launch of RXTE, proposals were again submitted to look for millisecond
signals in neutron star LMXBs: the spin, disk orbital motion, beat frequencies between
them and neutron star oscillations all figured as possible candidate mechanisms in the
RXTE Cycle 1 proposals. When RXTE became operational, discoveries came fast and
at a rapid pace. Febraary 20, 1996 lAU Circ. 6319: Sco X-1 has a variable frequency
1060-1130 Hz QPO, which could be the Keplerian frequency in the inner disk or a beat
thereof with the spin [17]; February 20, 1996 lAU Circ. 6320: 4U 1728-34 has 740-
800 Hz features, perhaps two, and a Kepler or beat frequency interpretation "cannot yet
be ruled out" [18]; March 6, 1996: 4U 1608-52 has a 828-890 Hz QPO, this suggests
kHz QPOs are a "regular feature" [19]; April 26, 1996: 4U 1728-34 has 5 bursts with
slightly drifting oscillations at 363 Hz and two QPOs whose frequency difference is near
363 Hz so that frequency is likely the spin [20]; June 21 1996: in Sco X-1 the frequency
difference between the two kHz QPOs changed from 2473 to 292 2 Hz [21].
The 4U 1728-34 result of April 26 strongly suggested that what we had was a
beat-frequency model, with the higher-frequency (or "upper") kHz QPO at the orbital
frequency of the inner edge of the Keplerian disk, the 363-Hz burst oscillation frequency,
albeit drifting, near the spin frequency and the lower-frequency (or "lower") kHz QPO
at the beat frequency between these two: at the time, it looked pretty convincing that
we were actually observing all three frequencies in a beat scenario. However, the June
21 result on Sco X-1 immediately appeared to contradict this, as the twin kHz QPOs
were thought to necessarily in this interpretation have a constant frequency difference
and that was clearly not the case: instead, as the two peaks moved to higher frequency,
they moved closer together (the peak separation Av decreased).
The beat frequency model that had been discussed for the EXOSAT results since the
1980's was one where the orbital frequency at the inner edge of a Keplerian accretion
disk beat with the neutron star spin through a direct interaction of orbiting clumps with
spinning magnetic field lines, modulating the accretion rate onto the neutron star surface.
The radius of the inner edge, and hence the QPO frequency and its variations, were
determined by the interaction of the accretion flow with the magnetic field of the neutron
star [13, 14], essentially it was the radius of the magnetosphere, and the model was
therefore dubbed the magnetospheric beat frequency model.
For the twin kHz QPOs it was argued that this model would not work (one reason
164
offered bing that it would be difficult to generate a QPO at the orbital frequency of the
inner disk edge) and it was proposed instead that the inner disk edge radius would be
determined by the interaction of the flow with the radiation field, the radiative stresses
carrying off angular momentum and hence deorbiting the circling matter, aided by the
very small difference in GR between the specific orbital angular momentum of different
orbits close to the ISCO [22]; the beat frequency would arise through an interaction of
orbiting clumps with the spinning radiation pattern, modulating the accretion rate from
each clump onto its footpoint on the neutron star surface. This model is called the sonic
point beat frequency model.
Much later it was realized that this model actually allows a variable Av. A strict
beat frequency relation applies only to the frequencies at which the accretion flow is
modulated, i.e., at the location of the clump which is orbiting at the inner disk edge.
This modulation is translated into a modulation of the X-ray emission only later, when
the flow impacts the footpoint on the surface. Both the signal at the orbital frequency
and the signal at the beat frequency can deviate from their values at the disk edge by
systematic variations in flow time from clump to surface and in the angle between clump
and hot spot locations relative to the neutron star center caused by the evolution of the
clump's orbit [23].
Meanwhile, the observations continued apace, and on July 4,1996 in 4U 1636-53 two
kHz QPOs were found with Av= 27311 Hz [24], whereas on January 21, 1997 a burst
oscillation was found in the same source whose frequency was 581 Hz [25], definitely
not the same frequency but close enough, given the systematics, to 2Av (actually, 3.2<T
away) to believe a commensurability might still exist, but now one where the burst
oscillation has twice the spin frequency. In terms of a beat frequency model this would
then require a pattern of two symmetric hot spots during the burst, but interaction of
the clumps at the disk edge with a spinning radiation pattern without a dominant two-
sided symmetry, i.e., such as produced by a single hot spot. The alternative, that the spin
would really be 581 Hz, and Av therefore near half the spin, is inconsistent with any
direct spin - orbit beat frequency model, even with generalized ones that allow arbitrary
configurations of symmetrically located hot spots and orbiting clumps [7]. Arguments
were presented that the observed burst oscillation amplitudes would be difficult to attain
if there were really two hot spots, gravitational light bending already smearing the pulses
to rather low amplitudes even with one hot spot [26]. (A report of a signal at 290 Hz in
bursts of 4U 1636-53 was made [27] but this was not confirmed in later work.)
3. RELATIVISTIC EPICYCLES AND DISK MODES

These various complications with the beat frequency interpretation led to the proposal of
other models for the kHz QPOs. Models involving various disk oscillation modes were
suggested, such as those in [28].
Of particular interest for what follows was the proposal that the two kHz QPOs
occur at, respectively, the orbital and the relativistic periastron precession frequency
of a variable-radius near-circular orbit in the inner disk, the relativistic precession model
or RPM [29] and a particularly elegant suggestion made for black hole accretion, that
the resonant interaction between relativistic orbital and epicyclic frequencies, occurring
165
at just those radii in the accretion disk where these frequencies have have small integer
ratios (1:2, 1:3, 2:3 etc.) would lead to amplification of just those frequencies out of all
frequencies that occur in an accretion disk, and hence would make them observable as
QPOs, the relativistic resonance model or RRM [30]. Of course, the RRM (proposed for
certain black hole QPOs) leads to constant QPO frequencies and is therefore not directly
applicable to kHz QPOs. The RPM predicts a very specific relation between the QPO
frequencies that follows directly from GR, which is not that observed in Sco X-1 and
therefore also requires additional ingredients to make it work.
4. REFINING THE OBSERVATIONS

On the observational side, precision Av measurements became possible by the introduc-
tion of the shift and add method [31 ] which allows to remove certain biases that occur in
measurements of the separation of peaks that change amplitude and width while moving.
It was found that variation in the frequency separation Av was not unique to Sco X-1 as
some had thought (but never really was likely), and could also be seen in other sources.
First in 4U 1608-52 [32], and then in other sources, variable separations were found,
and beginning with 4U 1636-53 [33] these were seen in objects which also showed
burst oscillations, allowing to compare the variable peak separation with burst oscilla-
tion frequency. Initially when Av was found to differ from the burst frequency (or half
the burst frequency) it was always found to be slightly less, but later the opposite was
also found, the first clear example again in 4U 1636-53 [34].
It was found that kHz QPO frequencies sometimes react to changes in the accretion
flow that occur on rather short time scales, the record being the systematic variation of
kHz QPO frequency as a function of the phase of 6-Hz QPOs in Sco X-1 [35]. If any
biases are introduced in the measured frequencies by processes that are as fast as this
then the shift-and-add method does not correct for them.
Particularly suggestive was the finding, in 4U 1608-52, that while usually the kHz
QPO frequency increases with X-ray flux and presumably accretion rate, the opposite
happens for one particular type of flux variation in this source, the so-called mHz QPOs
which had earlier been ascribed to unstable nuclear burning on the neutron star surface
[36]. When the flux goes up due to increased burning, the kHz QPO frequency drops.
This is in accordance with the radiative disk truncation mechanism that was part of
the sonic point model (but was also adopted in other models such as the RPM) [22]
where the frequency is set by inner disk edge radius, and this radius is set by the
interaction between accretion flow and radiation field: when the X-ray flux increases
due to increased burning, i.e., without a simultaneous increase in disk accretion rate,
the radiation "wins" and the disk edge moves out, making the frequency drop, while
normally an increase in disk accretion rate and therefore flux makes the disk edge move
inward and the frequency up, as observed.
166
5. KHZ QPOS IN PULSARS AND BURST OSCILLATION
SOURCES
Meanwhile, from 1998 onwards, AMPs had been found, beginning with the discovery
in 1998 of the 401-Hz pulsations in SAX J1808.4-3658 [1]. In 2003 the long-expected
next observable outburst of SAX J1808.4-3658 occurred. Observers were ready and
one of the most intensive observing campaigns with RXTE, long-planned, proposed
and approved, could finally be unleashed. The efforts were rewarded: the tentative burst
oscillation that had been detected in SAX data previously [37] was confirmed by the
detection of several bursts with clear burst oscillations at 401 Hz [38]. Relevant to the
current discussion, kHz QPOs were discovered for the first time in an AMP [7]. On (just)
one occasion two simultaneous peaks occurred, and their separation was 1966 Hz,
consistent with half the pulse and burst oscillation frequencies.
Clearly, if this meant that the kHz QPO peak separation was half the spin frequency,
then the direct spin-orbit beat frequency scenario did not work. A sensitive search for any
pulsar signal at 200.5 Hz gave an upper limit on the pulse amplitude at that frequency
of 0.014% of the flux, corresponding to about 0.38% of the amplitude at 401 Hz [1]. To
hide a true spin frequency of 200.5 Hz to this level is difficult. It would require either
identical antipodal hotspots combined with a special viewing geometry - in other words
a conspiracy - or, alternatively, equatorial identical antipodal hotspots. For the latter
configuration the problem is that to get the peak separation to be about 200 Hz by the
beat mechanism requires the disk to interact with only one of the two hotspots, which
exactly for equatorial hotspots seems impossible to accomplish. So, the conclusion was
that pulsations and burst oscillations both occur at the spin frequency, which is 401 Hz,
and the kHz QPOs are therefore half the spin frequency apart, falsifying the sonic point
beat frequency model [22].
The one occasion that twin peaks were seen in SAX J1808.4-3658 was when the
source was near the brightest point in the outburst and the kHz QPO that was usually
present was near its highest frequency: V2=6944 Hz with the lower kHz QPO at
Vi=4994 Hz. In addition to the frequency difference being half the spin frequency
Vj^,>j=401 Hz, it is also trae that 3Vspin - V2 = 509 4 Vi and 3vi - 2v2 = 695 12
V2; one might wonder if these 'magic combinations' of frequencies are coincidence or
not.
Later, twin kHz QPOs were also found in the 191-Hz AMP XTE J1807-294 during
numerous observations where V2 varied between 350 and 560 Hz [39]. The average
peak separation was 2056 Hz with no significant changes, consistent with the pulse
frequency, not half that, and no 'magic numbers' were in evidence. In Aql X-1, which
showed one brief (only 150 s) interlude of unmistakable pulsations at 550 Hz [40],
twin kHz QPOs with a separation of 28013 Hz were reported [41], so again consistent
with half the pulse frequency the QPOs were, however, not very significant. A single
kHz QPO was seen in the AMP HETE J1900.1-2455.
In addition to the burst oscillations at 401 Hz in SAX J1808.4-3658, burst oscillations
were also seen in XTE J1814-338 and Aql X-1 very close to their 314 and 550 Hz
pulse frequencies, respectively. Taking this as evidence that pulse and burst oscillation
frequencies in LMXBs are always at or near the spin frequency, one can then look at the
167
relation between Av and inferred spin frequency Vgpin among not just the AMPs but also
the sources showing burst oscillations. The pattern that emerged from that [7] was that
Av Vspin for Vj^,>i<400 Hz, and Av Vspin/^ for Vj^,>i>400 Hz, as if the condition
required to make the spin frequency visible in the disk in the form of Av could no
longer be fulfilled if the spin became too fast (perhaps requiring a radius inside the inner
disk edge) and then jumped to half the spin. This systematic behavior is most clearly
demonstrated in plots of Av/Vspin vs. Vgpin [42].
6. SPIN-ORBIT RESONANCE MODELS RESURRECTING

THE BEAT FREQUENCY SCENARIO
As noted in 3 the RRM predicts constant frequencies associated with radii in the
accretion disk where (combinations of) relativistic orbital and epicyclic frequencies
have small integer ratios. For neutron stars, additional resonances could occur at radii
where relativistic frequencies resonate with the spin frequency [7, 43, 44]. Wijnands et
al. (2003) [7] consider a resonance between periastron precession and (half) the spin,
and Kluzniak et al. (2004) [44] explore a number of possible resonances. In the Lamb
and Miller (2003) model [43] at the 'spin resonance radius' a vertical wave, excited by
a resonant influence of the spin on the motions of the matter in the disk, goes around
the neutron star at the spin frequency. The actual orbital frequency at that radius in the
disk is half the spin frequency, so that both frequencies are in principle available for
mechanisms that make them observable. A radiation-field mediated beat between the
orbital frequency at the inner edge of the disk and the spin frequency or half that at the
spin resonance radius makes the scenario complete in the sense that it can in principle
reproduce the observed combinations of frequencies mentioned above. This rescue of
the beat frequency idea notwithstanding, the observational question remains whether
Av is related to the spin or not.
7. INTERLUDE: THE RESULTS ON CIR X-1 AND THE

RELATIVISTIC PRECESSION MODEL
One of the predictions of the RPM is that the two peaks do not only move closer together
when they both move to higher frequency, but also when they would move to really low
frequencies (both below 500 Hz). Such low kHz QPO frequencies were not observed, so
that this could not be checked until the discovery of the kHz QPOs in Cir X-1 [45]. In
that source, Av decreases by a factor of ^2 (from -^350 to -^175 Hz) when V2 decreases
from -^500 to -^200 Hz, in rough agreement with what the RPM would predict for a
2.20.3 M0 neutron star. The large change in Av is difficult to accommodate in beat-
frequency scenarios where this quantity is tuned away from being constant by secondary
(flow time) effects described above, and the low values of V2 and large associated inner
disk radii are difficult to attain in the radiative disk truncation scenario also described
earlier.
168
I l l 1 1
- t|,
* *
I I I 1 1
200 300 400 500 600 0 200 400 600 800 1000
SPIN FREQUENCY (Hz) LOWER KHZ EREQUENCY (Hz)
FIGURE 1. Left: reported kHz QPO peak separations expressed as fraction of the spin frequency
plotted vs. spin frequency. Right: same vs. lower kHz QPO frequencies, but points with values in need of
confirmation plotted as small dots. AMPs in red.
8. THE CURRENT STATUS OF THE FREQUENCY

COMMENSURABILITIES
There are currently 12 LMXBs with reported Av measurements whose spin can be
estimated from either pulsations (3: SAX J1808.4-3658, XTE J1807-294 and Aql X-1)
or burst oscillations. A plot of Av/Vj^, vs. Vgpin shows a small number of remarkable
coincidences and perhaps some clustering around the values of 0.5 and 1 for the Av over
spin ratio, but also quite a few points at intermediate values (Fig. la). Some of the data
in this plot are not entirely secure, either because the burst oscillations used to estimate
the spin need confirmations [46] or because the second kHz QPO in the pair used to
measure Av is not very significant. Plotting these points as small dots and using Vi for
the X-axis the clustering around 0.5 and 1 is still in evidence, but there are measurements
in between as well (Fig. lb).
9. FACTORS 3/2
The RRM has sometimes been taken to predict that the frequency ratio of twin kHz
peaks should in principle be 3/2, additional mechanisms tuning away the frequencies
from this precise ratio [47], similar to the situation with the RPM and beat frequency
scenarios where additional mechanisms are also need to be invoked. A plot of the same
data as in the previous section to check on this actually leads to a similar-quality (i.e.,
not very good) match that could nevertheless be used to argue for a clustering around
3/2 (Fig. 2a). It should be noted, however, that plotting this data vs. Vi shows a clear
systematic effect that would need to be explained by the physics of the additional tuning
mechanism (Fig. 2b).
The number 3/2 recurs in the context of kHz QPOs in AMPs in another fashion. It is
169
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
ro -
1 ro
-J
- - CN
i
_
1* -t.
C^J
*
!
LO
H i i!
m
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
200 300 400 500 600 0 200 400 600 800 1000
SPIN FREQUENCY (Hz) LOWER KHZ FREQUENCY (Hz)
FIGURE 2. Left: kHz QPO frequency ratio vs. spin frequency. Right: same vs. lower kHz QPO
frequencies.
found in kHz QPO sources in general that the kHz QPO frequencies vary in correlation
with frequencies of QPOs and band limited noise phenomena at lower frequency [48,
49]. Remarkably, for SAX J1808.4-3658 and XTE J1807-294 the relations describing
these correlations are off those seen in other objects by a factor consistent with 3/2
[50, 39]. The relations can be brought back into correspondence by multiplying all
observed kHz QPO frequencies in both pulsars with a factor 1.5, as if for some reason the
kHz QPOs in these two objects occur at frequencies that are "too low' by this factor. In
the AMP XTE J0929-314 the data are consistent with a similar offset but in XTEJ 1814-
338 and XTE J1751-305 no such offset is required. The non-pulsar LMXB 4U 1820-30
may have similar but smaller (1.1-1.2) offsets [51]. No convincing scenario has been
proposed to explain these factor -^1.5 offsets in some AMPs, but as noted by [52] if
we "correct" the Av values for the two pulsars in the Av/Vgpin vs. Vgpin plot, the data
become even more suggestive of a gradual relation (Fig. 3a), or, expressed differently,
of a more or less constant Av that is unrelated to the spin frequency (Fig. 3b).
10. CONCLUSION
Since the first indications for a link between kHz QPO frequencies and spin in 1996,
an enormous amount of additional data has been obtained about this, but the evidence
for the existence of such a link has gone up and down over the years and, in all,
has not become more convincing than when it originally was proposed. Nevertheless,
the commensurabilities observed between kHz QPO, burst oscillation and pulsation
frequencies are sometimes rather striking and in general just a bit too common to
disregard. The same can be said, however, for some other commensurabilities. Ratios
near 3/2 seem to occur, in more than one context, just a bit too often to be attributed
to pure chance. The result on Cir X-1 suggests that the radial epicyclic frequency does
perhaps link to kHz QPO frequencies after all. No proposed model for the frequencies
170
M
h
200 300 400 500 600 200 300 400 500 600
SPIN FREQUENCY (Hz) SPIN EREQUENCY (Hz)
FIGURE 3. Left: kHz QPO peak separations expressed as fraction of the spin frequency plotted vs. spin
frequency. Right: peak separations vs. spin frequency. In both plots the values for the AMPs (red) were
multiplied by a factor 1.5.
is confirmed by all the data, but on the other hand each model has successes to point to,
clearly a highly unsatisfactory situation.
Perhaps, this somewhat perverse evolution of the data relative to the model predictions
actually provides a hint as to what is going on. Maybe, as discussed in 6, the kHz QPO
frequencies are not set by the spin frequency, but it is possible for frequencies that are
naturally present in the disk (orbital, epicyclic, hydro) to resonate with the spin, when
the conditions are right, and then make observable frequencies show up that are com-
mensurate with spin. The same might be true for other frequency commensurabilities,
with various resonances involving spin, orbital, epicyclic and hydrodynamic disk fre-
quencies all operating at the same time. As more resonant conditions are simultaneously
met, it would be increasingly likely that an observable QPO is produced.
This picture of a disk full of frequencies, out of which resonances produce observable
QPOs could also resolve other issues that arise when QPOs in neutron stars and black
holes are studied in detail, e.g., Altamirano, PhD thesis 2007, [53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58],
where the general aspect of the phenomenology that tends to confuse us always seems
to be similar: QPOs at first sight look like individually identifiable entities, "things"
that one can recognize as they move through the power spectrum, and in certain well
defined conditions that description works very well, but on closer inspection, e.g., where
they overlap with other phenomena, and at the edges of the territories in parameter
space where they occur, loose that identity and assume, sometimes only partly, the
characteristics of a related phenomenon previously thought distinct a situation that
necessarily leads to problems with any classification scheme. So, it could be that this
occurs because the persistent object we are studying is not any QPO, but instead is the
accretion flow, which has the property that depending on details of its state it tends
to oscillate, through more than one physical mechanism and at many frequencies, and
these oscillations tend to interact. The way towards progress might therefore lie in
leaving behind the picture of a zoo of strictly distinct QPO types and fully embracing the
171
physical paradigm (that has of course always been there) of a flow oscillating at various
frequencies not a terribly earth-shattering paradigm shift if you think about it, but one
that might be timely.
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Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 1068, 163 (2008); doi: 10.1063/1.3031187

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