Frequency ratio of twin kHz quasi-periodic oscillations: The case of 4U1820-303

By analyzing all archival Rossi X-ray timing explorer (RXTE) data of the neutron star low mass X-ray binary 4U1820-303, we investigate the detectability of simultaneous twin kHz quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) as a function of their frequency, width and root mean squared (RMS) amplitudes. In a blind search over the whole data set (spanning over about 10 years), we show that in continuous time intervals (2000-3000 s), twin QPOs are preferentially detected over narrow range of frequencies (similar to 100 Hz wide), leading to a clustering in the distribution of frequency ratios, and a gap around the point (600,900) Hz in the correlation line that links the upper QPO frequency to the lower QPO frequency. A deficit of lower QPOs around 600 Hz had already been noticed by Belloni et al. [Belloni, T., Mendez, M., Homan, J., 2005. A&A 437, 209], it is now confirmed using a much larger data set. We show that the lack of twin QPOs within the gap is not due to a lack of sensitivity for QPO detection, if the parameters of the QPOs (RMS and width) can be interpolated within the gap, using values measured before and after. Since as previously noticed, the gap cannot be attributed to an incomplete sampling of the source states, it thus implies a sudden change of the QPO properties within the gap, either a loss of coherence or an amplitude decrease, or alternatively, that there may be forbidden frequencies in this system. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.