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Register a new userChandra-HETGS Characterization of an Outflowing Wind in the accreting millisecond pulsar IGR J17591-2342
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Added by
Dr. Michael A. Nowak
Publication date
2019
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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IGR J17591-2342 is an accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar discovered in 2018 August in scans of the Galactic bulge and center by the INTEGRAL X-ray and gamma-ray observatory. It exhibited an unusual outburst profile with multiple peaks in the X-ray, as observed by several X-ray satellites over three months. Here we present observations of this source performed in the X-ray/gamma-ray and near infrared domains, and focus on a simultaneous observation performed with the Chandra-High Energy Transmission Gratings Spectrometer (HETGS) and the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). HETGS provides high resolution spectra of the Si-edge region, which yield clues as to the sources distance and reveal evidence (at 99.999% significance) of an outflow with a velocity of $mathrm{2,800,km,s^{-1}}$. We demonstrate good agreement between the NICER and HETGS continua, provided that one properly accounts for the differing manners in which these instruments view the dust scattering halo in the sources foreground. Unusually, we find a possible set of Ca lines in the HETGS spectra (with significances ranging from 97.0% to 99.7%). We hypothesize that IGR J17591-2342 is a neutron star low mass X-ray binary at a distance of the Galactic bulge or beyond that may have formed from the collapse of a white dwarf system in a rare, calcium rich Type Ib supernova explosion.
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We report on the phase-coherent timing analysis of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J17591-2342, using Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) data taken during the outburst of the source between 2018 August 15 and 2018 October 17. We obtain an updated orbital solution of the binary system. We investigate the evolution of the neutron star spin frequency during the outburst, reporting a refined estimate of the spin frequency and the first estimate of the spin frequency derivative ($dot{ u} sim -7times 10^{-14}$ Hz s$^{-1}$), confirmed independently from the modelling of the fundamental frequency and its first harmonic. We further investigate the evolution of the X-ray pulse phases adopting a physical model that accounts for the accretion material torque as well as the magnetic threading of the accretion disc in regions where the Keplerian velocity is slower than the magnetosphere velocity. From this analysis we estimate the neutron star magnetic field $B_{eq} = 2.8(3)times10^{8}$ G. Finally, we investigate the pulse profile dependence on energy finding that the observed behaviour of the pulse fractional amplitude and lags as a function of energy are compatible with a thermal Comptonisation of the soft photons emitted from the neutron star caps.
We report on the discovery by the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J17591-2342, detecting coherent X-ray pulsations around 527.4 Hz (1.9 ms) with a clear Doppler modulation. This implies an orbital period of ~8.8 hours and a projected semi-major axis of ~1.23 lt-s. From the binary mass function, we estimate a minimum companion mass of 0.42 solar masses, obtained assuming a neutron star mass of 1.4 solar masses and an inclination angle lower than 60 degrees, as suggested by the absence of eclipses or dips in the light-curve of the source. The broad-band energy spectrum is dominated by Comptonisation of soft thermal seed photons with a temperature of ~0.7 keV by electrons heated to 21 keV. We also detect black-body-like thermal direct emission compatible with an emission region of a few kilometers and temperature compatible with the seed source of Comptonisation. A weak Gaussian line centered on the iron K-alpha; complex can be interpreted as a signature of disc reflection. A similar spectrum characterises the NICER spectra, measured during the outburst fading.
IGR J17591$-$2342 is a new accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar (AMXP) that was recently discovered in outburst in 2018. Early observations revealed that the sources radio emission is brighter than that of any other known neutron star low-mass X-ray binary (NS-LMXB) at comparable X-ray luminosity, and assuming its likely $gtrsim 6$ kpc distance. It is comparably radio bright to black hole LMXBs at similar X-ray luminosities. In this work, we present the results of our extensive radio and X-ray monitoring campaign of the 2018 outburst of IGR J17591$-$2342. In total we collected 10 quasi-simultaneous radio (VLA, ATCA) and X-ray (Swift-XRT) observations, which make IGR J17591$-$2342 one of the best-sampled NS-LMXBs. We use these to fit a power-law correlation index $beta = 0.37^{+0.42}_{-0.40}$ between observed radio and X-ray luminosities ( $L_mathrm{R}propto L_mathrm{X}^{beta}$). However, our monitoring revealed a large scatter in IGR J17591$-$2342s radio luminosity (at a similar X-ray luminosity, $L_mathrm{X} sim 10^{36}$ erg s$^{-1}$, and spectral state), with $L_mathrm{R} sim 4 times 10^{29}$ erg s$^{-1}$ during the first three reported observations, and up to a factor of 4 lower $L_mathrm{R}$ during later radio observations. Nonetheless, the average radio luminosity of IGR J17591$-$2342 is still one of the highest among NS-LMXBs, and we discuss possible reasons for the wide range of radio luminosities observed in such systems during outburst. We found no evidence for radio pulsations from IGR J17591$-$2342 in our Green Bank Telescope observations performed shortly after the source returned to quiescence. Nonetheless, we cannot rule out that IGR J17591$-$2342 becomes a radio millisecond pulsar during quiescence.
IGR J17591-2342 is a recently INTEGRAL discovered accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar that went into outburst around July 21, 2018. To better understand the physics acting in these systems during the outburst episode we performed detailed temporal-, timing- and spectral analyses across the 0.3-300 keV band using data from NICER, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR and INTEGRAL. The hard X-ray 20-60 keV outburst profile is composed of four flares. During the maximum of the last flare we discovered a type-I thermonuclear burst in INTEGRAL JEM-X data. We derived a distance of 7.6+/-0.7 kpc, adopting Eddington luminosity limited photospheric radius expansion burst emission and assuming anisotropic emission. In the timing analysis using all NICER 1-10 keV monitoring data we observed a rather complex behaviour starting with a spin-up period, followed by a frequency drop, a episode of constant frequency and concluding with irregular behaviour till the end of the outburst. The 1-50 keV phase distributions of the pulsed emission, detected up to $sim$ 120 keV using INTEGRAL ISGRI data, was decomposed in three Fourier harmonics showing that the pulsed fraction of the fundamental increases from ~10% to ~17% going from ~1.5 to ~4 keV, while the harder photons arrive earlier than the soft photons for energies <10 keV. The total emission spectrum of IGR J17591-2342 across the 0.3-150 keV band could adequately be fitted in terms of an absorbed compPS model yielding as best fit parameters a column density of N_H=(2.09+/-0.05) x 10^{22} /cm2, a blackbody seed photon temperature kT_bb,seed of 0.64+/- 0.02 keV, electron temperature kT_e=38.8+/-1.2 keV and Thomson optical depth Tau_T=1.59+/-0.04. The fit normalisation results in an emission area radius of 11.3+/-0.5 km adopting a distance of 7.6 kpc. Finally, the results are discussed within the framework of accretion physics- and X-ray thermonuclear burst theory.
The accreting millisecond pulsars IGR J00291+5934 and SAX J1808.4-3658 are two compact binaries with very similar orbital parameters. The latter has been observed to evolve on a very short timescale of ~70 Myr which is more than an order of magnitude shorter than expected. There is an ongoing debate on the possibility that the pulsar spin-down power ablates the companion generating large amount of mass-loss in the system. It is interesting therefore to study whether IGR J00291+5934 does show a similar behaviour as its twin system SAX J1808.4-3658. In this work we present the first measurement of the orbital period derivative of IGR J00291+5934. By using XMM-Newton data recorded during the 2015 outburst and adding the previous results of the 2004 and 2008 outbursts, we are able to measure a 90% confidence level upper limit for the orbital period derivative of -5x10^-13<Pb_dot<6x10^-13. This implies that the binary is evolving on a timescale longer than ~0.5 Gyr, which is compatible with the expected timescale of mass transfer driven by angular momentum loss via gravitational radiation. We discuss the scenario in which the power loss from magnetic dipole radiation of the neutron star is hitting the companion star. If this model is applied to SAX J1808.4-3658 then the difference in orbital behavior can be ascribed to a different efficiency for the conversion of the spin-down power into energetic relativistic pulsar wind and X-ray/gamma-ray radiation for the two pulsars, with IGR J00291+5934 requiring an extraordinarily low efficiency of less than 5% to explain the observations. Alternatively, the donor in IGR J00291+5934 is weakly/not magnetized which would suppress the possibility of generating mass-quadrupole variations.
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