Fast transition of type-B quasi-periodic oscillation in the black hole transient XTE J1817-330

Abstract

Context. The evolution of different types of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) and the coupled radiative/physical changes in the accretion disk are still poorly understood. In a few black hole binaries it was found that fast evolution of QPOs is associated with spectral variations. These studies in other black hole binaries are important to understand the QPO phenomenon. Aims. We study fast QPO transitions and accompanying spectral variations of the black hole transient XTE J1817-330 to investigate the causes of the spectral variation during the QPO transition. Methods. Recently, QPOs in ten RXTE observations of XTE J1817-330 were found. We found that among these, only one observation shows erratic dips in its X-ray light curve. The power density spectra and the corresponding energy spectra were extracted and analyzed for the dip and non-dip sections of the light curve. Results. We found that type-B ∼6 Hz QPO changes into type-A QPO in a few tens of seconds along with a flux decrease. This transient evolution is accompanied by a significant spectral variation. Conclusions. We report a transient QPO feature and accompanying spectral variation in XTE J1817-330. Based on our findings, we discuss the origin of fast evolution of QPOs and spectral variations.