No Arabic abstract
We present timing and spectral analysis of RXTE-PCA observations of SMC X-1 between January 1996 and December 2003. From observations around 30 August 1996 with a time span of $sim 6$ days, we obtain a precise timing solution for the source and resolve the eccentricity as 0.00089(6). We find an orbital decay rate of $dot P_{orb}/P_{orb} =-3.402(7) times 10^{-6}$ yr$^{-1}$ which is close to the previous results. Using our timing analysis and the previous studies, we construct a $sim 30$ year long pulse period history of the source. We show that frequency derivative shows long (i.e. more than a few years) and short (i.e. order of days) term fluctuations. From the spectral analysis, we found that all spectral parameters except Hydrogen column density showed no significant variation with time and X-ray flux. Hydrogen column density is found to be higher as X-ray flux gets lower. This may be due to the increase in soft absorption when the pulsar is partially obscured as in Her X-1 or may just be an artifact of the tail of a soft excess in energy spectrum.
We analyzed RXTE-PCA observations of a recent outburst of the X-ray pulsar XMMU J054134.7$-$682550. We calculated the pulse frequency history of the source. We found no sign of a binary companion. The source spins up when the X-ray flux is higher, with a correlation between the spin-up rate and X-ray flux, which may be interpreted as a sign of an accretion disk. On the other hand, the source was found to have an almost constant spin frequency when the X-ray flux is lower without any clear sign of a spin-down episode. The decrease in pulsed fraction with decreasing X-ray flux was intrepreted as a sign of accretion geometry change, but we did not find any evidence of a transition from accretor to propeller regimes. The source was found to have variable pulse profiles. Two peaks in pulse profiles were usually observed. We studied the X-ray spectral evolution of the source throughout the observation. Pulse phase resolved analysis does not provide any further evidence for a cyclotron line, but may suggest a slight variation of intensity and width of the 6.4 keV iron line with phase.
We present the results of the analysis of the broad-band spectrum of Cygnus X-1 from 3.0 to 200 keV, using data from a 10 ksec observation by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. The spectrum can be well described phenomenologically by an exponentially cut-off power law with a photon index Gamma = 1.45 +/- 0.02 (a value considerably harder than typically found), e-folding energy E_fold = 162 +/- 9 keV, plus a deviation from a power law that formally can be modeled as a thermal blackbody with temperature kT_bb = 1.2 +/1 0.2 keV. Although the 3 - 30 keV portion of the spectrum can be fit with a reflected power law with Gamma = 1.81 +/- 0.01 and covering fraction f = 0.35 +/- 0.02, the quality of the fit is significantly reduced when the HEXTE data in the 30 - 100 keV range is included, as there is no observed hardening in the power law within this energy range. As a physical description of this system, we apply the accretion disc corona models of Dove, Wilms & Begelman (1997) --- where the temperature of the corona is determined self-consistently. A spherical corona with a total optical depth tau = 1.6 +/- 0.1 and an average temperature kT_c = 87 +/- 5 keV, surrounded by an exterior cold disc, does provide a good description of the data (reduced chi-squared = 1.55). These models deviate from the data by up to 7% in the 5 - 10 keV range, and we discuss possible reasons for these discrepancies. However, considering how successfully the spherical corona reproduces the 10 - 200 keV data, such ``photon-starved coronal geometries seem very promising for explaining the accretion processes of Cygnus X-1.
Of all known persistent stellar-mass black hole candidates, only LMC X-1 and LMC X-3 consistently show spectra that are dominated by a soft, thermal component. We present results from long (170ksec) Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observations of LMC X-1 and LMC X-3 made in 1996 December. The spectra can be described by a multicolor disk blackbody plus an additional high-energy power-law. Even though the spectra are very soft (Gamma is about 2.5), RXTE detected a significant signal from LMC X-3 up to energies of 50keV, the hardest energy at which the object was ever detected. Focusing on LMC X-3, we present results from the first year of an ongoing monitoring campaign with RXTE which started in 1997 January. We show that the appearance of the object changes considerably over its ~200d long cycle. This variability can either be explained by periodic changes in the mass transfer rate or by a precessing accretion disk analogous to Her X-1.
In this paper we present our recent timing and spectral analysis of the X-ray pulsar 4U 1907+09. Our X-ray data consist of an extended set of RXTE & INTEGRAL observations that were analyzed before ({c{S}}ahiner et al. 2012). From the X-ray observations we extend the pulse period history of the source and obtain a revised orbital distribution of the X-ray dips. Using ROTSE IIId optical observations, we present the long term optical light curve of the source to have an understanding of long term optical behaviour.
We report on the results of Swift and XMM-Newton observations of SMC X-2 during its last outburst in 2015 October, the first one since 2000. The source reached a very high luminosity ($L sim 10^{38}$ erg s$^{-1}$), which allowed us to perform a detailed analysis of its timing and spectral properties. We obtained a pulse period $P_{rm spin}$ = 2.372267(5) s and a characterization of the pulse profile also at low energies. The main spectral component is a hard ($Gamma simeq 0$) power-law model with an exponential cut-off, but at low energies we detected also a soft (with kT $simeq$ 0.15 keV) thermal component. Several emission lines can be observed at various energies. The identification of these features with the transition lines of highly ionized N, O, Ne, Si, and Fe suggests the presence of photoionized matter around the accreting source.