2016 Outburst of H 1743-322: XMM-Newton and NuSTAR View

We report the detection of a type C quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) along with an upper harmonic in the commensurate ratio of 1:2 in two observations of the low-mass black hole transient H 1743-322 jointly observed by XMM-Newton and NuSTAR during the 2016 outburst. We find that the QPO and the upper harmonic exhibit shifts in their centroid frequencies in the second observation with respect to the first one. The hardness intensity diagram implies that in contrast to the 2008 and 2014 failed outbursts, the 2016 outburst was a successful one. We also detect the presence of a broad iron K alpha line at similar to 6.5 keV and a reflection hump in the energy range 15-30 keV in both of the observations. Along with the shape of the power density spectra, the nature of the characteristic frequencies and the fractional rms amplitude of the timing features imply that the source stayed in the low/hard state during these observations. Moreover, the photon index and other spectral parameters also indicate the low/hard state behavior of the source. Unlike the soft lag detected in this source during the 2008 and 2014 failed outbursts, we observe hard time lags of 0.40 0.15 s and 0.32 0.07 s in the 0.07-0.4 Hz frequency range in the two observations during the 2016 outburst. The correlation between the photon index and the centroid frequency of the QPO is consistent with the previous results. Furthermore, the high value of the Comptonized fraction and the weak thermal component indicate that the QPO is being modulated by the Comptonization process.