CygX1 Multi-Mission X-ray Timing Analysis

A comprehensive multi-mission X-ray timing and spectral analysis project studying the black hole binary Cygnus X-1.

Data Access

All project data is available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WnlOXwfbNVlffGupCfgIknap2vWm5WUd?usp=sharing

Project Overview

This project involves detailed timing analysis using data from four major X-ray missions:

• RXTE/PCA - Historical archive (1996-2011)
• NuSTAR/FPM - Hard X-ray focusing (3-79 keV)
• XMM-Newton/EPIC - High throughput, soft X-ray spectral resolution
• NICER/XTI - Ultra-precise timing (<1¼s)

Environment Setup

Requires:

• HEASoft 6.35 with complete CALDB
• XMM-Newton SAS 22.1.0
• Python 3.12.9 with Stingray 2.2.6
• Conda environment: xray-env

Quick Start

# Initialize environment
heainit && caldbinit && sasinit

# Activate conda environment
conda activate xray-env

# Run analysis pipeline
python scripts/analysis/test_stingray_setup.py

Project Status

Phase 1: ~85% Complete

• � Complete infrastructure setup
• � Literature analysis (51 papers)
• � Multi-mission data acquisition (448 observations)
• � Barycentric correction pipeline (100 timing-ready files)
• � State classification framework
• � Orbital phase analysis

Scientific Objectives

• Systematic comparison of hard and soft accretion states
• Broadband timing and spectral correlation analysis
• Multi-mission cross-calibration studies
• Constraints on black hole parameters and accretion physics