1. RXTE Pursuit of Variability and X-ray States …plus a Few Fun Memories Ron Remillard, MIT Kavli Center for Astrophysics & collaborators (Jeff McClintock & CfA BH Spin team; Dacheng Lin & Jeroen Homan; Joey Neilsen)

2. Outline Black Hole Binaries and their X-ray States A Few Comparisons with Neutron Stars Comments on Unsolved Problems Inspiring Memories

3. Normalized CDs/HIDs of Black Hole GX339-4 Frequent outbursts & faint hard states Thermal x Hard (jet)   Steep Power Law  Intermediate O

4. Normalized CDs/HIDs of Black Hole XTE J1550-564 Thermal x Hard (jet)   Steep Power Law  Intermediate O

5. Normalized CDs/HIDs of Black Hole Cyg X-1

7. ? SPL bit more stable than INT state at 1% L Edd (d=1.86 kpc; Reid et al. 2011)

8. Normalized CDs/HIDs of Neutron Star 4U1636-53 bursts removed

9. Normalized CDs/HIDs of Neutron Star 4U1636-53 Super burst + 582 Hz pulsations Feb 22, 2001 Strohmayer & Markwardt 2002

10. Normalized CDs/HIDs of Neutron Star 4U1636-53 kHz QPOs 858 (37%) of 2314  > 4 Often very high Q = /  e.g., Barret et al. 2007; Belloni et al. 2007; Mendez 2006

11. Unsolved: Steep Power Law & High Freq. QPOs compact corona; high optical depth;  ~ 2.5QPOs at 300, 450 Hz No NS spectra like this!Low optical depth? Promising concept: magnetized accretion disk?

12. Unsolved: Steep Power Law & High Freq. QPOs compact corona; high optical depth;  ~ 2.5QPOs at 184, 276 Hz Also: GRS1915+105; XTE J1859+226; H1743-322, etc.

13. Unsolved: Accretion Disk Winds  Chandra HETG : Transient absorption features  Disk winds in soft states. Magnetic and/or thermal driven ? (Miller et al. 2004; Ueda et al. 2004; Miller et al. 2006a; 2006b; Neilsen & Lee 2009; Ueda et al. 2009; Neilsen et al. 2011; King et al. 2012; Miller et al. 2012) Wind v : hundreds to 9300 km/s Wind mass loss ~ accretion rate in inner disk

14. Unsolved: Accretion Disk Winds  Chandra/RXTE Campaigns on GS1915+105 Neilsen et al. 2011; Neilsen et al. 2012 in prep.

15. Technology for High Count Rate Detectors  Era of Astrophysics Applications for general relativity has begun ; X-ray binaries make important contributions  Lexicon of Scientific Adversity: pileup; saturation; high deadtime; low percentage telemetry  Advocate Technology Support for Detector Improvements Si pixel detectors Microcalorimeter fine-pixel arrays

16. Great Memories Jan. 1996: Jean Swank in pajamas! (after sleeping in side office at RXTE SOC) GSFC Spacecraft Engineering Design Rescue; Extraordinary Skill & Success Keywords: dedication, responsibility, commitment, leadership Hale Bradt quote (1985): “If you accept the instrument team offer, then this job could last…. Ummh… uh… maybe 5 years! Final comment: Let Our Fun Truck-on