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Register a new userRapid X-ray variability properties during the unusual very hard state in neutron-star low-mass X-ray binaries
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Here we study the rapid X-ray variability (using XMM-Newton observations) of three neutron-star low-mass X-ray binaries (1RXS J180408.9-342058, EXO 1745-248, and IGR J18245-2452) during their recently proposed very hard spectral state (Parikh et al. 2017). All our systems exhibit a strong to very strong noise component in their power density spectra (rms amplitudes ranging from 34% to 102%) with very low characteristic frequencies (as low as 0.01 Hz). These properties are more extreme than what is commonly observed in the canonical hard state of neutron-star low-mass X-ray binaries observed at X-ray luminosities similar to those we observe from our sources. This suggests that indeed the very hard state is a distinct spectral-timing state from the hard state, although we argue that the variability behaviour of IGR J18245-2452 is very extreme and possibly this source was in a very unusual state. We also compare our results with the rapid X-ray variability of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars IGR J00291+5934 and Swift J0911.9-6452 (also using XMM-Newton data) for which previously similar variability phenomena were observed. Although their energy spectra (as observed using the Swift X-ray telescope) were not necessarily as hard (i.e., for Swift J0911.9-6452) as for our other three sources, we conclude that likely both sources were also in very similar state during their XMM-Newton observations. This suggest that different sources that are found in this new state might exhibit different spectral hardness and one has to study both the spectral as well as rapid variability to identify this unusual state.
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We report on unusually very hard spectral states in three confirmed neutron-star low-mass X-ray binaries (1RXS J180408.9-342058, EXO 1745-248, and IGR J18245-2452) at a luminosity between ~ 10^{36-37} erg s^{-1}. When fitting the Swift X-ray spectra (0.5 - 10 keV) in those states with an absorbed power-law model, we found photon indices of Gamma ~ 1, significantly lower than the Gamma = 1.5 - 2.0 typically seen when such systems are in their so called hard state. For individual sources very hard spectra were already previously identified but here we show for the first time that likely our sources were in a distinct spectral state (i.e., different from the hard state) when they exhibited such very hard spectra. It is unclear how such very hard spectra can be formed; if the emission mechanism is similar to that operating in their hard states (i.e., up-scattering of soft photons due to hot electrons) then the electrons should have higher temperatures or a higher optical depth in the very hard state compared to those observed in the hard state. By using our obtained Gamma as a tracer for the spectral evolution with luminosity, we have compared our results with those obtained by Wijnands et al. (2015). We confirm their general results in that also our sample of sources follow the same track as the other neutron star systems, although we do not find that the accreting millisecond pulsars are systematically harder than the non-pulsating systems.
Binary systems with a neutron-star primary accreting from a companion star display variability in the X-ray band on time scales ranging from years to milliseconds. With frequencies of up to ~1300 Hz, the kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations (kHz QPOs) represent the fastest variability observed from any astronomical object. The sub-millisecond time scale of this variability implies that the kHz QPOs are produced in the accretion flow very close to the surface of the neutron star, providing a unique view of the dynamics of matter under the influence of some of the strongest gravitational fields in the Universe. This offers the possibility to probe some of the most extreme predictions of General Relativity, such as dragging of inertial frames and periastron precession at rates that are sixteen orders of magnitude faster than those observed in the solar system and, ultimately, the existence of a minimum distance at which a stable orbit around a compact object is possible. Here we review the last twenty years of research on kHz QPOs, and we discuss the prospects for future developments in this field.
AX J1754.2-2754, 1RXS J171824.2-402934 and 1RXH J173523.7-354013 are three persistent neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries that display a 2--10 keV accretion luminosity Lx of only (1-10)x1E34 erg s-1 (i.e., only ~0.005-0.05 % of the Eddington limit). The phenomenology of accreting neutron stars which accrete at such low accretion rates is not yet well known and the reason why they have such low accretion rates is also not clear. Therefore, we have obtained XMM-Newton data of these three sources and here we report our analysis of the high-quality X-ray spectra we have obtained for them. We find that AX J1754.2-2754 has Lx~1E35 erg s-1, while the other two have X-ray luminosities about an order of magnitude lower. However, all sources have a similar, relatively soft, spectrum with a photon index of 2.3-2.5, when the spectrum is fitted with an absorbed power-law model. This model fits the data of AX J1754.2-2754 adequately, but it cannot fit the data obtained for 1RXS J171824.2-402934 and 1RXH J173523.7-354013. For those sources a clear soft thermal component is needed to fit their spectra. This soft component contributes 40% - 50% to the 0.5-10 keV flux of the sources. When including this additional spectral component, the power-law photon indices are significantly lower. It can be excluded that a similar component with similar contributions to the 2-10 keV X-ray flux is present for AX J1754.2-2754, indicating that the soft spectrum of this source is mostly due to the fact that the power-law component itself is not hard. We note that we cannot excluded that weaker soft component is present in the spectrum of this source which only contributes up to ~25% to the 0.5-10 keV X-ray flux. We discuss our results in the context of what is known of accreting neutron stars at very low accretion rate.
Neutron star X-ray binaries emit a compact, optically thick, relativistic radio jet during low-luminosity, usually hard states, as Galactic black-hole X-ray binaries do. When radio emission is bright, a hard power-law tail without evidence for an exponential cutoff is observed in most systems. We have developed a jet model that explains many spectral and timing properties of black-hole binaries in the states where a jet is present. Our goal is to investigate whether our jet model can reproduce the hard tail, with the correct range of photon index and the absence of a high-energy cutoff, in neutron-star X-ray binaries. We have performed Monte Carlo simulations of the Compton upscattering of soft, accretion-disk or boundary layer photons, in the jet and computed the emergent energy spectra, as well as the time lag of hard photons with respect to softer ones as a function of Fourier frequency. We demonstrate that our jet model explains the observed power-law distribution with photon index in the range 1.8-3. With an appropriate choice of the parameters, the cutoff expected from Comptonization is shifted to energies above ~300 keV, producing a pure power law without any evidence for a rollover, in agreement with the observations. Our results reinforce the idea that the link between the outflow (jet) and inflow (disk) in X-ray binaries does not depend on the nature of the compact object, but on the process of accretion. Furthermore, we address the differences of jets in black-hole and neutron-star X-ray binaries and predict that the break frequency in the spectral energy distribution of neutron-star X-ray binaries, as a class, will be lower than that of black-hole binaries.
Motivated by the large body of literature around the phenomenological properties of accreting black hole (BH) and neutron star (NS) X-ray binaries in the radio:X-ray luminosity plane, we carry out a comparative regression analysis on 36 BHs and 41 NSs in hard X-ray states, with data over 7 dex in X-ray luminosity for both. The BHs follow a radio to X-ray (logarithmic) luminosity relation with slope $beta=0.59pm0.02$, consistent with the NSs slope ($beta=0.44^{+0.05}_{-0.04}$) within 2.5$sigma$. The best-fitting intercept for the BHs significantly exceeds that for the NSs, cementing BHs as more radio loud, by a factor $sim$22. This discrepancy can not be fully accounted for by the mass or bolometric correction gap, nor by the NS boundary layer contribution to the X-rays, and is likely to reflect physical differences in the accretion flow efficiency, or the jet powering mechanism. Once importance sampling is implemented to account for the different luminosity distributions, the slopes of the non-pulsating and pulsating NS subsamples are formally inconsistent ($>3sigma$), unless the transitional millisecond pulsars (whose incoherent radio emission mechanism is not firmly established) are excluded from the analysis. We confirm the lack of a robust partitioning of the BH data set into separate luminosity tracks.
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