Similarities and differences in accretion flow properties between GRS 1915+105 and IGR J17091-3624: A case study

We perform a comparative spectro-temporal analysis on the variability classes of GRS 1915+105 and IGR J17091-3624 to draw inferences regarding the underlying accretion flow mechanism. The ν, as well as C2 class Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer observation, have been considered for analysis. We investigate the intensity variation of the source in different energy domains that correspond to different components of the accretion flow and infer the relative dominance of these flow components during the dip/flare events. We correlate the dependence of the dynamic photon index ( Θ ) with intensities in different energy bands and comment on the transition of the source to hard/soft phases during soft dips/flares. We also report the presence of sharp QPOs at ∼7.1 Hz corresponding to both softer and harder domain in the case of ν variability class of GRS 1915+105 and discuss the possible accretion flow configuration it suggests. Sharp QPO around ∼20 mHz is observed in ν and C2 classes of IGR J17091-3624 in low and mid energy band (2.0–6.0 keV and 6.0–15.0 keV), but remains undetected in high energy (15.0–60.0 keV). The 2.5–25.0 keV background-subtracted spectra have also been fitted with TCAF along with a Compton reflection component. A plausible accretion flow mechanism in order to explain the observed variability has been proposed.