Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userOn the Fe K absorption - accretion state connection in the Galactic center neutron star X-ray binary AX J1745.6-2901
152
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
AX J1745.6-2901 is a high-inclination (eclipsing) neutron star Low Mass X-ray Binary (LMXB) located less than ~1.5 arcmin from Sgr A*. Ongoing monitoring campaigns have targeted Sgr A* frequently and these observations also cover AX J1745.6-2901. We present here an X-ray analysis of AX J1745.6-2901 using a large dataset of 38 XMM-Newton observations, including eleven which caught AX J1745.6-2901 in outburst. Fe K absorption is clearly seen when AX J1745.6-2901 is in the soft state, but disappears during the hard state. The variability of these absorption features does not appear to be due to changes in the ionizing continuum. The small Kalpha/Kbeta ratio of the equivalent widths of the Fe xxv and Fe xxvi lines suggests that the column densities and turbulent velocities of the absorbing ionised plasma are in excess of N_H ~ 10^23 cm^-2 and v_turb >~ 500 km s^-1. These findings strongly support a connection between the wind (Fe K absorber) and the accretion state of the binary. These results reveal strong similarities between AX J1745.6-2901 and the eclipsing neutron star LMXB, EXO 0748-676, as well as with high-inclination black hole binaries, where winds (traced by the same Fe K absorption features) are observed only during the accretion-disc-dominated soft states, and disappear during the hard states characterised by jet emission.
rate research
Read More
AX J1745.6-2901 is a high-inclination (eclipsing) transient neutron star (NS) Low Mass X-ray Binary (LMXB) showcasing intense ionised Fe K absorption. We present here the analysis of 11 XMM-Newton and 15 NuSTAR new data-sets (obtained between 2013-2016), therefore tripling the number of observations of AX J1745.6-2901 in outburst. Thanks to simultaneous XMM-Newton and NuSTAR spectra, we greatly improve on the fitting of the X-ray continuum. During the soft state the emission can be described by a disk black body ($kTsim1.1-1.2$ keV and inner disc radius $r_{DBB}sim14$ km), plus hot ($kTsim2.2-3.0$ keV) black body radiation with a small emitting radius ($r_{BB}sim0.5-0.8$ km) likely associated with the boundary layer or NS surface, plus a faint Comptonisation component. Imprinted on the spectra are clear absorption features created by both neutral and ionised matter. Additionally, positive residuals suggestive of an emission Fe K$alpha$ disc line and consistent with relativistic ionised reflection are present during the soft state, while such residuals are not significant during the hard state. The hard state spectra are characterised by a hard ($Gammasim1.9-2.1$) power law, showing no evidence for a high energy cut off ($kT_e>60-140$ keV) and implying a small optical depth ($tau<1.6$). The new observations confirm the previously witnessed trend of exhibiting strong Fe K absorption in the soft state, that significantly weakens during the hard state. Optical (GROND) and radio (GMRT) observations suggest for AX J1745.6-2901 a standard broad band SED as typically observed in accreting neutron stars.
The eclipsing low-mass X-ray binary AX J1745.6-2901 was observed with Suzaku in its outburst phase. Combining the Chandra observation made 1.5 month earlier than Suzaku, we determined the orbital period to be 30063.76+/-0.14 s. We found deep flux dips prior to the eclipse phase of orbit. The X-ray spectrum of the persistent phase is described with a combination of a direct and a scattered-in by dust emissions. During the eclipse, the X-ray spectrum becomes only the dust scattering (scattered-in) component. The optical depth of the dust-scattering is ~10.5 at 1 keV. The direct component is composed of a blackbody likely from the neutron star surface and a disk-blackbody. No power-law component is found in the hard energy band up to 30 keV. A clear edge at ~7.1 keV in the deep dip spectrum indicates that the major portion of Fe in the absorber is neutral or at low ionization state. We discovered four narrow absorption lines near the K-shell transition energies of Fe XXV, Fe XXVI, and Ni XXVII. The absorption line features are well explained by the solar abundance gas in a bulk motion of ~10^3 km/s.
We analysed an XMM-Newton plus a simultaneous Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer observation and a separate Suzaku observation of the neutron-star low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1728-34. We fitted the X-ray spectra with the self-consistent reflection model relxill. We found that the inclination angle of 4U 1728-34 is 49 degrees, consistent with the upper limit of 60 degrees deduced from the absence of eclipses or dips in this source. The inclination angle in the fit of the XMM-Newton/RXTE observation is larger than 85 degrees, which may be due to the possible calibration issues of the PN instrument in timing mode. We also found that the thermal emission from the accretion disc is not significant. This could be explained either by the relatively high column density of the interstellar medium along the line of sight to the source, which decreases the number of soft disc photons, or if most of the soft thermal photons from the disc are reprocessed in the corona. The ionisation parameter derived from the fits is larger than the value predicted in the framework of the standard reflection model, wherein the disc is irradiated by an X-ray source above the compact object. This inconsistency suggests that irradiation from the neutron star and its boundary layer may play an important role in the ionisation of the accretion disc, and hence in the reflection component in this source.
Broad Fe K emission lines have been widely observed in the X-ray spectra of black hole systems, and in neutron star systems as well. The intrinsically narrow Fe K fluorescent line is generally believed to be part of the reflection spectrum originating in an illuminated accretion disk, and broadened by strong relativistic effects. However, the nature of the lines in neutron star LMXBs has been under debate. We therefore obtained the longest, high-resolution X-ray spectrum of a neutron star LMXB to date with a 300 ks Chandra HETGS observation of Serpens X-1. The observation was taken under the continuous clocking mode and thus free of photon pile-up effects. We carry out a systematic analysis and find that the blurred reflection model fits the Fe line of Serpens X-1 significantly better than a broad Gaussian component does, implying that the relativistic reflection scenario is much preferred. Chandra HETGS also provides highest spectral resolution view of the Fe K region and we find no strong evidence for additional narrow lines.
We report on a detailed study of the spectral and temporal properties of the neutron star low mass X-ray binary SLX 1737-282, which is located only ~1degr away from Sgr A. The system is expected to have a short orbital period, even within the ultra-compact regime, given its persistent nature at low X-ray luminosities and the long duration thermonuclear burst that it has displayed. We have analysed a Suzaku (18 ks) observation and an XMM-Newton (39 ks) observation taken 7 years apart. We infer (0.5-10 keV) X-ray luminosities in the range 3-6 x10^35erg s-1, in agreement with previous findings. The spectra are well described by a relatively cool (kTbb = 0.5 keV) black body component plus a Comptonized emission component with {Gamma} ~1.5-1.7. These values are consistent with the source being in a faint hard state, as confirmed by the ~ 20 per cent fractional root mean square amplitude of the fast variability (0.1 - 7 Hz) inferred from the XMM-Newton data. The electron temperature of the corona is >7 keV for the Suzaku observation, but it is measured to be as low as ~2 keV in the XMM-Newton data at higher flux. The latter is significantly lower than expected for systems in the hard state. We searched for X-ray pulsations and imposed an upper limit to their semi-amplitude of 2 per cent (0.001 - 7 Hz). Finally, we investigated the origin of the low frequency variability emission present in the XMM-Newton data and ruled out an absorption dip origin. This constraint the orbital inclination of the system to 65 degr unless the orbital period is longer than 11 hr (i.e. the length of the XMM-Newton observation).
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
