The strength of Type-C quasi-periodic oscillations in black hole X-ray binaries correlates with the jet inclination

F M Vincentelli; N Bollemeijer; A Veledina; D Altamirano; Q Bu; F Carotenuto; P Casella; Y Cavecchi; R Ma; G Marcel; G Mastroserio; S Motta; L Zhang

doi:10.1093/mnras/stag1004

The strength of Type-C quasi-periodic oscillations in black hole X-ray binaries correlates with the jet inclination

F M Vincentelli
, N Bollemeijer
, A Veledina
, D Altamirano
, Q Bu
, F Carotenuto
, P Casella
, Y Cavecchi
, R Ma
, G Marcel
, G Mastroserio
, S Motta
, L Zhang

Research Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems

University of Southampton
University of Amsterdam
University of Turku
Stockholm University
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Central China Normal University
INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma
University of La Laguna
Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS Pavia
National Institute for Astrophysics
University of Oxford
Institute of High Energy Physics
Chinese Academy of Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

X-ray quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are a characteristic feature of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). These oscillations have been studied for decades and revealed a rich and complex phenomenology that is still not fully understood. RXTE archival studies have shown that the amplitude of these oscillations differs significantly between black holes (BH) with high or low inclination. Yet, the actual dependence on inclination has never been adequately estimated. Thanks to the improvement of inclination measurements through radio observations and the recent observations by the HXMT satellite, we quantified for the first time the dependence of Type-C QPO amplitudes on the jet inclination of individual BH LMXBs. Our analysis reveals the presence of a significant linear correlation up to 8 Hz, strengthening the case for a ‘geometrical’ origin of the QPOs. In addition, for a given QPO frequency, we observe systematically lower amplitudes during the decay of outbursts compared to the rise. This data collection represents a key benchmark for any QPO model. Our comparison with the predictions from a precessing hot flow shows that the amplitude of the QPOs can be reproduced by this scenario if the spin-orbit misalignment is at least ≈10-15○.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-11
Number of pages	11
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume	549
Issue number	4
Early online date	30 May 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1004
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 30 May 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Funding

The authors are thankful to the anonymous referee for their constructive comments which significantly improved the paper.FMV acknowledges support by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme with the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 101149685and the Visitor and Mobility programme of the Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA). FMV and DA acknowledge support from the Science and Technology Facilities Council grant ST/V001000/1. FMV also thanks Poshak Gandhi and Mariano Mendez for the insightful discussions.AV and Gr. M acknowledge support from the Research Council of Finland grants 355672 and 372881. GM acknowledges support from the Polish National Science Center grant 2023/48/Q/ST9/00138. Nordita is supported in part by NordForsk.The authors are thankful for the team meetings at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) for fruitful discussions. In particular this research was supported by ISSI in Bern, through the International Team projects ’Looking at the Disc–Jet Coupling from Different Angles: Inclination Dependence of Black-Hole Accretion Observables’ (#18–440) and’What are the spins of stellar-mass black holes?’ (ISSI Team project #25-660)Gu. M acknowledges financial support from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101107057 and the INAF Grant BLOSSOMYC acknowledges support from the grant RYC2021-032718-I, financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR.

Funders	Funder number
Horizon Europe
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)	ST/V001000/1
H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions	101149685and
Research Council of Finland	355672, 372881
Horizon Europe	101107057, MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, RYC2021-032718-I
Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO
Polish National Science Center
NordForsk

Keywords

X-rays: binaries
accretion, accretion discs
stars: black holes
stars: jets

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science

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10.1093/mnras/stag1004Licence: CC BY

Vincentelli2026VoRFinal published version, 1.59 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Vincentelli, F. M., Bollemeijer, N., Veledina, A., Altamirano, D., Bu, Q., Carotenuto, F., Casella, P., Cavecchi, Y., Ma, R., Marcel, G., Mastroserio, G., Motta, S., & Zhang, L. (2026). The strength of Type-C quasi-periodic oscillations in black hole X-ray binaries correlates with the jet inclination. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 549(4), 1-11. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1004

Vincentelli, FM, Bollemeijer, N, Veledina, A, Altamirano, D, Bu, Q, Carotenuto, F, Casella, P, Cavecchi, Y, Ma, R, Marcel, G, Mastroserio, G, Motta, S & Zhang, L 2026, 'The strength of Type-C quasi-periodic oscillations in black hole X-ray binaries correlates with the jet inclination', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 549, no. 4, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1004

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abstract = "X-ray quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are a characteristic feature of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). These oscillations have been studied for decades and revealed a rich and complex phenomenology that is still not fully understood. RXTE archival studies have shown that the amplitude of these oscillations differs significantly between black holes (BH) with high or low inclination. Yet, the actual dependence on inclination has never been adequately estimated. Thanks to the improvement of inclination measurements through radio observations and the recent observations by the HXMT satellite, we quantified for the first time the dependence of Type-C QPO amplitudes on the jet inclination of individual BH LMXBs. Our analysis reveals the presence of a significant linear correlation up to 8 Hz, strengthening the case for a {\textquoteleft}geometrical{\textquoteright} origin of the QPOs. In addition, for a given QPO frequency, we observe systematically lower amplitudes during the decay of outbursts compared to the rise. This data collection represents a key benchmark for any QPO model. Our comparison with the predictions from a precessing hot flow shows that the amplitude of the QPOs can be reproduced by this scenario if the spin-orbit misalignment is at least ≈10-15○.",

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AU - Bu, Q

AU - Carotenuto, F

AU - Casella, P

AU - Cavecchi, Y

AU - Ma, R

AU - Marcel, G

AU - Mastroserio, G

AU - Motta, S

AU - Zhang, L

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N2 - X-ray quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are a characteristic feature of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). These oscillations have been studied for decades and revealed a rich and complex phenomenology that is still not fully understood. RXTE archival studies have shown that the amplitude of these oscillations differs significantly between black holes (BH) with high or low inclination. Yet, the actual dependence on inclination has never been adequately estimated. Thanks to the improvement of inclination measurements through radio observations and the recent observations by the HXMT satellite, we quantified for the first time the dependence of Type-C QPO amplitudes on the jet inclination of individual BH LMXBs. Our analysis reveals the presence of a significant linear correlation up to 8 Hz, strengthening the case for a ‘geometrical’ origin of the QPOs. In addition, for a given QPO frequency, we observe systematically lower amplitudes during the decay of outbursts compared to the rise. This data collection represents a key benchmark for any QPO model. Our comparison with the predictions from a precessing hot flow shows that the amplitude of the QPOs can be reproduced by this scenario if the spin-orbit misalignment is at least ≈10-15○.

AB - X-ray quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are a characteristic feature of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). These oscillations have been studied for decades and revealed a rich and complex phenomenology that is still not fully understood. RXTE archival studies have shown that the amplitude of these oscillations differs significantly between black holes (BH) with high or low inclination. Yet, the actual dependence on inclination has never been adequately estimated. Thanks to the improvement of inclination measurements through radio observations and the recent observations by the HXMT satellite, we quantified for the first time the dependence of Type-C QPO amplitudes on the jet inclination of individual BH LMXBs. Our analysis reveals the presence of a significant linear correlation up to 8 Hz, strengthening the case for a ‘geometrical’ origin of the QPOs. In addition, for a given QPO frequency, we observe systematically lower amplitudes during the decay of outbursts compared to the rise. This data collection represents a key benchmark for any QPO model. Our comparison with the predictions from a precessing hot flow shows that the amplitude of the QPOs can be reproduced by this scenario if the spin-orbit misalignment is at least ≈10-15○.

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KW - accretion, accretion discs

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The strength of Type-C quasi-periodic oscillations in black hole X-ray binaries correlates with the jet inclination

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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