The Accretion Flow Geometry of MAXI J1820+070 through Broadband Noise Research with Insight Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope

Abstract

Here we present a detailed study of the broadband noise in the power density spectra of the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1820+070 during the hard state of its 2018 outburst, using Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope observations. The broadband noise shows two main humps, which might separately correspond to variability from a variable disk and two Comptonization regions. We fitted the two humps with multiple Lorentzian functions and studied the energy-dependent properties of each component up to 90–150 keV and their evolution with spectral changes. The lowest-frequency component is considered as the subharmonic of the quasiperiodic oscillation component and shows a different energy dependence compared with other broadband noise components. We found that although the fractional rms of all the broadband noise components mainly decreases with the energy, their rms spectra are different in shape. Above ∼20–30 keV, the characteristic frequencies of these components increase sharply with the energy, meaning that the high-energy component is more variable on short timescales. Our results suggest that the hot inner flow in MAXI J1820+070 is likely to be inhomogeneous. We propose a geometry with a truncated accretion disk and two Comptonization regions.