We have developed an algorithm that, starting from the observed properties of the X-ray spectrum and fast variability of an X-ray binary allows the production of synthetic data reproducing observables such as power density spectra and time lags, as well as their energy dependence. This allows to reconstruct the variability of parameters of the energy spectrum and to reduce substantially the effects of Poisson noise, allowing to study fast spectral variations. We have applied the algorithm to Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer data of the black-hole binary Cygnus X-1, fitting the energy spectrum with a simplified power law model. We recovered the distribution of the power law spectral indices on time-scales as low as 62 ms as being limited between 1.6 and 1.8. The index is positively correlated with the flux even on such time-scales.
We study the soft X-ray variability of Cygnus X-3. By combining data from the All-Sky Monitor and Proportional Counter Array instruments on the RXTE satellite with EXOSAT Medium Energy (ME) detector observations, we are able to analyse the power density spectrum (PDS) of the source from 10^(-9) - 0.1 Hz, thus covering time-scales from seconds to years. As the data on the longer time-scales are unevenly sampled, we combine traditional power spectral techniques with simulations to analyse the variability in this range. The PDS at higher frequencies (>10^-3 Hz) are for the first time compared for…
XRISM High-Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy of Cygnus X-1 -- Orbital and Short-Term Variability of Iron Absorption
Tokyo University of Science(东京科学大学);Rikkyo University(立教大学);Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory(劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室);SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research(荷兰空间研究所);California Institute of Technology(加州理工学院);University of Michigan(密歇根大学);Massachusetts Institute of Technology(麻省理工学院);Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)(日本宇宙航空研究开发机构宇宙科学研究所)
We present the most extensive analysis of Fourier-based X-ray timing properties of the black hole binary Cygnus X-1 to date, based on 12 years of bi-weekly monitoring with RXTE from 1999 to 2011. Our aim is a comprehensive study of timing behavior across all spectral states, including the elusive transitions and extreme hard and soft states. We discuss the dependence of the timing properties on spectral shape and photon energy, and study correlations between Fourier-frequency dependent coherence and time lags with features in the power spectra. Our main results are: (a) The fractional rms in t…
Orbital variability has been found in the X-ray hardness of the black hole candidate Cygnus X-1 during the soft/high X-ray state using light curves provided by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer's All Sky Monitor. We are able to set broad limits on how the mass-loss rate and X-ray luminosity vary between the hard and soft states. The folded light curve shows diminished flux in the soft X-ray band at phase 0 (defined as the time of of the superior conjunction of the X-ray source). Models of the orbital variability provide slightly superior fits when the absorbing gas is concentrated in neutral clu…
Long-term X-ray variability of the black hole binary, Cygnus X-1, was studied with five years of MAXI data from 2009 to 2014, which include substantial periods of the high/soft state, as well as the low/hard state. In each state, Normalized Power Spectrum densities (NPSDs) were calculated in three energy bands of 2-4 keV, 4-10 keV and 10-20 keV. The NPSDs in a frequency from 1e-7 Hz to 1e-4 Hz are all approximated by a power-law function with an index -1.35 ~ -1.29. The fractional RMS variation ($η$), calculated in the above frequency range, was found to show the following three properties; (1…
We present a multi-epoch hard X-ray analysis of Cygnus X-1 in its soft state based on four observations with NuSTAR. Despite the basic similarity of the observed spectra, there is clear spectral variability between epochs. To investigate this variability, we construct a model incorporating both the standard disk-corona continuum and relativistic reflection from the accretion disk, based on prior NuSTAR work on Cygnus X-1, and apply this model to each epoch independently. We find excellent consistency for the black hole spin, and the iron abundance of the accretion disk, which are expected to r…
Cygnus X-1 is one of the brightest X-ray sources observed and shows the X-ray intensity variations on time scales from milliseconds to months in both the soft and hard X-rays. The accretion onto the black hole is believed to be wind fed due to focused stellar wind from the binary companion HDE-226868. We aim to understand the physical mechanism responsible for the short timescale X-ray variability ($<$100 s) of the source in its Hard/Low state. We compute the 2D relativistic hydrodynamic simulation of the low angular momentum accretion flow with a time dependent outer boundary condition that r…
For the very first time, we report the high frequency analysis of Cyg X-1 up to hard X-ray using SPI on-board INTEGRAL. After analyzing the possible contribution fromthe background, and using INTEGRAL archive from March 2005 to May 2008, Power Density Spectra (PDS) were obtained until 130 keV. First, we show that their overall shape is very similar to that observed at lower energies, as they are well described by sets of Lorentzians. The strength of this fast variability (up to 40 Hz) does not drop at high energy since we show that it remains at ~25% rms, even in the highest energy bands. Seco…
We have performed a principal component analysis on the X-ray spectra of the microquasar Cygnus X-3 from RXTE, INTEGRAL and Swift during a major flare ejection event in 2006 May-July. The analysis showed that there are two main variability components in play, i.e. two principal components explained almost all the variability in the X-ray lightcurves. According to the spectral shape of these components and spectral fits to the original data, the most probable emission components corresponding to the principal components are inverse-Compton scattering and bremsstrahlung. We find that these compo…
Aims: Probe the high-energy ($>$60 MeV) emission from the black hole X-ray binary system, Cygnus X-1, and investigate its origin. Methods: We analysed 7.5 yr of data by Fermi/LAT with the latest PASS8 software version. Results: We report the detection of a signal at $\sim$8 $σ$ statistical significance spatially coincident with Cygnus X-1 and a luminosity above 60 MeV of 5.5$\times$10$^{33}$ erg s$^{-1}$. The signal is correlated with the hard X-ray flux: the source is observed at high energies only during the hard X-ray spectral state, when the source is known to display persistent, relativis…
The knowledge of the spectral state of a black hole is essential for the interpretation of data from black holes in terms of their emission models. Based on pointed observations of Cyg X-1 with the Rossi X-ray timing Explorer (RXTE) that are used to classify simultaneous RXTE-ASM observations, we develop a scheme based on RXTE -ASM colors and count rates that can be used to classify all observations of this canonical black hole that were performed between 1996 and 2011. We show that a simple count rate criterion, as used previously, leads to a significantly higher fraction of misclassified obs…
State-Dependent X-ray Variability in Cygnus X-1: A 12-Year NuSTAR Timing Study of Accretion Flow Geometry
Boston University(波士顿大学);Raman Research Institute(拉曼研究所);Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal(印度科学教育与研究学院博帕尔分校);Florida International University(佛罗里达国际大学);Miami Dade College(迈阿密戴德学院);Osmania University(奥斯曼尼亚大学);Physical Research Laboratory(物理研究实验室);UN Center for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and Pacific (CSSTEAP)(联合国亚洲及太平洋空间技术和外空活动教育训练中心);Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat(萨达尔·瓦拉巴伊国立技术学院苏拉特分校);Pondicherry University(本地治里大学);School of Sciences, JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), Bengaluru(JAIN(视为大学)班加罗尔理学院);Janusz Gil Institute of Astronomy, University of Zielona Góra(绿山大学扬努什·吉尔天文学研究所)
The way in which the X-ray photon index, Γ, varies as a function of count rate is a strong diagnostic of the emission processes and emission geometry around accreting compact objects. Here we present the results from a study using a new, and simple, method designed to improve sensitivity to the measurement of the variability of Γ on very short time-scales. We have measured Γ in ~2 million spectra, extracted from observations with a variety of different accretion rates and spectral states, on time-scales as short as 16 ms for the high mass X-ray binary Cygnus X-1, and have cross-correlated thes…
Thanks to recurrent observations of the black hole binary Cyg X-1 carried out over 15 years the INTEGRAL satellite has collected the largest data set in the hard X-ray band for this source. We have analyzed these data, complemented by data collected by other X-ray satellites and radio flux at 15 GHz. To characterize the spectral and variability properties of the system we have examined parameters such as the hard X-ray flux, photon index and fractional variability. Our main result is that the 2D distribution of the photon index and flux determined for the 22-100 keV band forms six clusters. Th…
We analyse in detail the X-ray data of the microquasar Cygnus X-3 obtained during major radio flaring episodes in 2006 with multiple observatories. The analysis consists of two parts: probing the fast (~ 1 minute) X-ray spectral evolution with Principal Component Analysis followed by subsequent spectral fits to the time-averaged spectra (~ 3 ks). Based on the analysis we find that the overall X-ray variability during major flaring episodes can be attributed to two principal components whose evolution based on spectral fits is best reproduced by a hybrid Comptonization component and a bremsstra…
We present a scheme to determine the spectral state of the canonical black hole Cyg X-1 using data from previous and current X-ray all sky monitors (RXTE-ASM, Swift-BAT, MAXI, and Fermi-GBM). State determinations of the hard/intermediate and soft state agree to better than 10% between different monitors, facilitating the determination of the state and its context for any observation of the source, potentially over the lifetimes of different individual monitors. A separation of the hard and the intermediate state, which strongly differ in their spectral shape and short-term timing behavior, is …
Binary systems with an accreting compact object are a unique chance to investigate the strong, clumpy, line-driven winds of early type supergiants by using the compact object's X-rays to probe the wind structure. We analyze the two-component wind of HDE 226868, the O9.7Iab giant companion of the black hole Cyg X-1 using 4.77 Ms of RXTE observations of the system taken over the course of 16 years. Absorption changes strongly over the 5.6 d binary orbit, but also shows a large scatter at a given orbital phase, especially at superior conjunction. The orbital variability is most prominent when the…
We present the analysis of two long, quasi-uninterrupted RXTE observations of Cygnus X-1 that span several days within a 10 d interval. The spectral characteristics during this observation cover the region where previous observations have shown the source to be most dynamic. Despite that the source behavior on time scales of hours and days is remarkably similar to that on year time scales. This includes a variety of spectral/temporal correlations that previously had only been observed over Cyg X-1's long-term evolution. Furthermore, we observe a full transition from a hard to a soft spectral s…
We present simultaneous multi-band radio and X-ray observations of the black hole X-ray binary Cygnus X-1, taken with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array. With these data, we detect clear flux variability consistent with emission from a variable compact jet. To probe how the variability signal propagates down the jet flow, we perform detailed timing analyses of our data. We find that the radio jet emission shows no significant power at Fourier frequencies $f\gtrsim0.03$ Hz (below $\sim30$ sec timescales), and that the higher frequency radio bands (…
Below an accretion rate of approximately a few per cent of the Eddington accretion rate, X-ray binary systems are not usually found in the soft spectral state. However, at accretion rates a factor of a few lower still, in the hard state, there is another spectral transition which is well observed but not well understood. Below ~0.5-1 per cent of the Eddington accretion rate (m_crit), the spectral index hardens with increasing accretion rate, but above m_crit, although still in the hard state, the spectral index softens with increasing accretion rate. Here we use a combination of X-ray spectral…
X-ray pulses with millisecond-long FWHM have been detected in RXTE (Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer) observations of Cyg X-1. Their identity as short-timescale variations in the X-ray luminosity of the source, and not stochastic variability in the X-ray flux, is established by their simultaneous occurrence and similar pulse structure in two independent energy bandpasses. The light-time distance corresponding to the timescale of their FWHM indicates that they originate in the inner region of the accretion disk around the system's black hole component. The fluence in the pulses can equal or exceed t…
Cygnus X-1, as the first discovered black hole binary, is a key source for understanding the mechanisms of state transitions, and the scenarios of accretion in extreme gravity fields. We present a spectral-timing analysis of observations taken with the Insight-HXMT mission, focusing on the spectral-state dependent timing properties in the broad energy range of 1--150 keV, thus extending previous RXTE-based studies to both lower and higher energies. Our main results are the following: a) We successfully use a simple empirical model to fit all spectra, confirming that the reflection component is…
In 2015, a radio transient named Cygnus A-2 was discovered in Cygnus A with the Very Large Array. Because of its radio brightness ($νF_ν \approx 6 \times 10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$), this transient likely represents a secondary black hole in orbit around the AGN. Using {\it Chandra} ACIS observations from 2015 to 2017, we have looked for an X-ray counterpart to Cygnus A-2. The separation of 0.42 arcsec means that Cygnus A-2 can not be spatially resolved, but by comparing the data with simulated \texttt{marx} data, we put an upper limit to the 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity of Cygnus A-2 of $1 \times 10^…
We report the results of AstroSat observations of Cygnus X-2 during February 2016. The source's power density spectrum generated using LAXPC data revealed the presence of a prominent Quasi-periodic Oscillation (QPO) at $\sim42$ Hz with broadband continuum noise at lower frequencies at $\sim10$ Hz. The large effective area of LAXPC at $\gtrsim$30 keV allowed for an unprecedented study of the energy dependence of the QPO and the broad noise continuum. The fractional r.m.s increases with energy, and its shape is similar for both the QPO and the continuum noise, suggesting a common radiative origi…
Identification of gamma-ray-emitting Galactic sources is a long-standing problem in astrophysics. One such source, 1AGL J2022+4032, coincident with the interior of the radio shell of the supernova remnant Gamma Cygni (SNR G78.2+2.1) in the Cygnus Region, has recently been identified by Fermi as a gamma-ray pulsar, LAT PSR J2021+4026. We present long-term observations of 1AGL J2022+4032 with the AGILE gamma-ray telescope, measuring its flux and light curve. We compare the light curve of 1AGL J2022+4032 with that of 1AGL J2021+3652 (PSR J2021+3651), showing that the flux variability of 1AGL J202…
Here we study a 1-200 keV energy spectrum of the black hole binary Cygnus X-1 taken with NuSTAR and Suzaku. This is the first report of a NuSTAR observation of Cyg X-1 in the intermediate state, and the observation was taken during the part of the binary orbit where absorption due to the companion's stellar wind is minimal. The spectrum includes a multi-temperature thermal disk component, a cutoff power-law component, and relativistic and non-relativistic reflection components. Our initial fits with publicly available constant density reflection models (relxill and reflionx) lead to extremely …
We report on Cyg X-1 observations performed by the SPI telescope onboard the INTEGRAL mission and distributed over more than 6 years. We investigate the variability of the intensity and spectral shape of this peculiar source in the hard X-rays domain, and more particularly up to the MeV region. We first study the total averaged spectrum which presents the best signal to noise ratio (4 Ms of data). Then, we refine our results by building mean spectra by periods and gathering those of similar hardness. Several spectral shapes are observed with important changes in the curvature between 20 and 20…
We present the first X-ray reverberation mass measurement of a stellar-mass black hole. Accreting stellar-mass and supermassive black holes display characteristic spectral features resulting from reprocessing of hard X-rays by the accretion disc, such as an Fe K$α$ line and a Compton hump. This emission probes of the innermost region of the accretion disc through general relativistic distortions to the line profile. However, these spectral distortions are insensitive to black hole mass, since they depend on disc geometry in units of gravitational radii. Measuring the reverberation lag resultin…
We report on the \nustar{} observation of the Z-type neutron star low-mass X-ray binary Cygnus X--2 performed on 7 January 2015. During this observation, the source exhibited sudden decrease in count rate (dips) and stronger variability in $3-79\kev$ X-ray lightcurve. The hardness-intensity diagram shows that the source remained in the so-called \quotes{normal branch} of the Z-track, although an extended \quotes{flaring branch} is observed during the dips. The source was in a soft spectral state with the $3-45\kev$ luminosity of $L\simeq(0.5-1.1)\times 10^{38}$ erg s$^{-1}$, assuming a distanc…
We study particle acceleration and magnetic field amplification in the primary hotspot in the northwest jet of radiogalaxy Cygnus A. By using the observed flux density at 43 GHz in a well resolved region of this hotspot, we determine the minimum value of the jet density and constrain the magnitude of the magnetic field. We find that a jet with density greater than $5\times 10^{-5}$ cm$^{-3}$ and hotspot magnetic field in the range 50-400 $μ$G are required to explain the synchrotron emission at 43 GHz. The upper-energy cut-off in the hotspot synchrotron spectrum is at a frequency < $5\times 10^…
The microquasar Cygnus X-1 displays the two typical soft and hard X-ray states of a black-hole transient. During the latter, Cygnus X-1 shows a one-sided relativistic radio-jet. Recent detection of the system in the high energy (HE; $E\gtrsim60$ MeV) gamma-ray range with \textit{Fermi}-LAT associates this emission with the outflow. Former MAGIC observations revealed a hint of flaring activity in the very high-energy (VHE; $E\gtrsim100$ GeV) regime during this X-ray state. We analyze $\sim97$ hr of Cygnus X-1 data taken with the MAGIC telescopes between July 2007 and October 2014. To shed light…
We present NuSTAR observations of the powerful radio galaxy Cygnus A, focusing on the central absorbed active galactic nucleus (AGN). Cygnus A is embedded in a cool-core galaxy cluster, and hence we also examine archival XMM-Newton data to facilitate the decomposition of the spectrum into the AGN and intracluster medium (ICM) components. NuSTAR gives a source-dominated spectrum of the AGN out to >70keV. In gross terms, the NuSTAR spectrum of the AGN has the form of a power law (Gamma~1.6-1.7) absorbed by a neutral column density of N_H~1.6x10^23 cm^-2. However, we also detect curvature in the …
High energy emissions near particle accelerators provide unique windows to probe the particle acceleration and ensuing escape process determined by local medium properties, particularly the turbulence properties. It has been demonstrated both theoretically and observationally that particle diffusion in local environment can differ from the averaged values inferred from the CR global propagation in the Galaxy determined by local medium, particularly magnetic field and turbulence. A recent publication by Fornieri & Zhang (2022) computed particle transport employing the formalism of fast modes sc…
From GeV to PeV: Orbital Modulation and Wind-Regulated Ultrahigh-energy Emission in Cygnus~X-3
School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University(南京大学天文与空间科学学院);Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics (Nanjing University), Ministry of Education(教育部现代天文学和天体物理学重点实验室(南京大学));Tianfu Cosmic Ray Research Center(天府宇宙线研究中心);State Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences(中国科学院高能物理研究所粒子天体物理国家重点实验室)
We extract the spectra of the fastest variability (above 10 Hz) from the black hole XTE J1550-564 during a transition from hard to soft state on the rise to outburst. We confirm previous results that the rapid variability contains no significant disc component despite this being strongly present in the total spectrum of the softer observations. We model ionised reflection significantly better than previous work, and show that this is also suppressed in the rapid variability spectrum compared to the total emission. This is consistent with the fast variability having its origin in a hot inner fl…
The different electron distributions in the hard and soft spectral states (HS and SS) of BH binaries could be caused by kinetic processes and changing because of varying physical conditions in the corona. In presence of a magnetic field in the corona, the electron distribution can appear thermal, even when acceleration mechanisms would produce non thermal distributions. This is due to fast and efficient thermalization through synchrotron self-absorption. We have analyzed data from 6 years of observations of Cygnus X-1 with the INTEGRAL observatory and produced 12 high-quality, stacked broad-ba…
We imaged the position of the Naked-Eye Burst, GRB080319B, before, during and after its gamma-ray activity with sub-second temporal resolution and discovered the fast variability of its prompt optical emission. Its characteristics and similarity with properties of gamma emission temporal structure suggest that it reflects the behaviour of internal engine -- supposedly, a hyperaccreting solar-mass black hole formed in the collapse of a massive stellar core.
Accreting black holes show characteristic reflection features in their X-ray spectrum, including an iron K$α$ line, resulting from hard X-ray continuum photons illuminating the accretion disk. The reverberation lag resulting from the path length difference between direct and reflected emission provides a powerful tool to probe the innermost regions around both stellar-mass and supermassive black holes. Here, we present for the first time a reverberation mapping formalism that enables modeling of energy dependent time lags and variability amplitude for a wide range of variability timescales, ta…
We present an analysis of the long-term X-ray variability of the extreme narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxy IRAS 13224-3809 using principal component analysis (PCA) and fractional excess variability (Fvar) spectra to identify model-independent spectral components. We identify a series of variability peaks in both the first PCA component and Fvar spectrum which correspond to the strongest predicted absorption lines from the ultra-fast outflow (UFO) discovered by Parker et al. (2017). We also find higher order PCA components, which correspond to variability of the soft excess and reflection fea…
Recent X-ray observations of blue-shifted absorption lines revealed an existence of the extremely fast disk winds with outflow velocities of ~0.1-0.3c. Such fast outflows would have a large impact on the coevolution of black holes and host galaxies since they are expected to carry a large amount of kinetic energy. One of the common characteristics of these fast winds is a strong time variability of the absorption feature. To investigate this variability, we have developed a new X-ray spectral model of the disk winds, which is generated by 3-dimensional Monte Carlo radiation transfer simulation…
We present here the results of the first broadband simultaneous spectral and temporal studies of the newly detected black hole binary MAXI J1820+070 as seen by SXT and LAXPC on-board AstroSat.The observed combined spectra in the energy range 0.7-80 keV were well modeled using disk black-body emission, thermal Comptonization and a reflection component. The spectral analysis revealed that the source was in its hard spectral state (Gamma=1.61) with a cool disk (kTin=0.22 keV). We report the energy dependent time-lag and root mean squared (rms) variability at different frequencies in the energy ra…
While jets appear as a fundamental result of accretion processes onto compact objects in X-ray binaries, there is as yet no standard model for their underlying physics. The origin of the observed disk-jet coupling also remains largely unknown. X-ray variability studies have revealed complex variability in the accretion flow onto stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars, on timescales as short as milliseconds. The detection of correlated broad-band rapid time variability in the jet emission would provide valuable information on how the variability is transferred along the jet and on the times…
The X-ray emission from accreting black-holes and neutron stars features strong variability on sub-second time scales, with very complex and broad phenomenology. From high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations to rapidly changing X-ray burst oscillations to millisecond pulsations, these are weak signals immersed in strong noise and their study is pushing instrument capabilities to their limit. The scientific significance of fast time variability studies are both astronomical (properties of accretion flows, nature and evolution of sources) and physical (effects of General Relativity, equation o…
Energy-Resolved Limits on Orbital X-ray Polarization Modulation in Cygnus X-1
Washington University in St. Louis(华盛顿大学);European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC)(欧洲空间局(ESA),欧洲空间研究与技术中心(ESTEC))
Blazars are a class of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) known for their very rapid variabilty in the high energy regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Despite this known fast variability, X-ray observations have generally not revealed variability in blazars with rate doubling or halving timescales less than approximately 15 min. Since its launch, the Swift X-ray Telescope has obtained 0.2-10 keV X-ray data on 143 AGNs, including blazars, through intense target of opportunity observations that can be analyzed in a multiwavelength context and used to model jet parameters, particularly during fla…
Currently available information on fast variability of the X-ray emission from accreting collapsed objects constitutes a complex phenomenology which is difficult to interpret. We review the current observational standpoint for black-hole binaries and survey models that have been proposed to interpret it. Despite the complex structure of the accretion flow, key observational diagnostics have been identified which can provide direct access to the dynamics of matter motions in the close vicinity of black holes and thus to the some of fundamental properties of curved spacetimes, where strong-field…
We report the discovery of fast variability of gamma-ray flares from blazar OJ 287. This blazar is known to be powered by binary system of supermassive black holes. The observed variability time scale T_var < 3-10 hr is much shorter than the light crossing time of more massive (1.8x10^10 solar masses) black hole and is comparable to the light crossing time of the less massive (1.3x10^8 solar masses) black hole. This indicates that gamma-ray emission is produced by relativistic jet ejected by the black hole of smaller mass. Detection of gamma rays s with energies in excess of 10 GeV during the …
High-redshift blazars are one of the most powerful monsters in the universe and $γ$-ray variability carries crucial information of their relativistic jets. In this work we present results of the first systematical temporal analysis of {\it Fermi}-LAT data of all known seven $γ$-ray blazars beyond redshift 3. Significant long-term $γ$-ray variability is found from five sources in monthly $γ$-ray light curves, in which three of them are reported for the first time. Furthermore, intraday $γ$-ray variations are detected from NVSS J053954$-$283956 and NVSS J080518$+$614423. Doubling variability tim…