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Register a new userFollow-up observations of X-ray emitting hot subdwarf stars: the compact He-poor sdO star Feige 34
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Nicola La Palombara
Publication date
2019
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Authors
N. La Palombara
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We report on results obtained with the XMM-Newton observation of Feige 34 carried out in April 2018. This is the first spectroscopic X-ray observation of a compact and helium-poor hot subdwarf star. The source was detected at a flux level $f_{rm X}$ = 3.4$times10^{-14}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ in the energy range 0.2-3 keV, which implies an X-ray-to-bolometric flux ratio $f_{rm X}/f_{rm bol} simeq 10^{-6.5}$. The source spectrum can be described with the sum of two thermal-plasma components with subsolar abundances at temperatures of $simeq$ 0.3 and 1.1 keV. These properties are similar to what is observed in early-type main-sequence stars, where the X-ray emission is attributed to turbulence and shocks in the stellar wind. Therefore, the same phenomenon could explain the X-ray properties of Feige 34. However, it is not possible to reproduce the observed spectrum with a thermal-plasma model if the elemental abundances are fixed at the values obtained from the optical and UV spectroscopy. Moreover, we show that the X-ray luminosity and spectrum are consistent with those expected from a young main-sequence star of late spectral type. Therefore, we discuss the possibility that the observed X-ray emission is due to the companion star of M0 spectral type, whose presence is suggested by the IR excess in the spectral energy distribution of Feige 34.
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We report on the results of the first XMM-Newton satellite observation of the luminous and helium-rich O-type subdwarf BD +37{deg} 1977 carried out in April 2014. X-ray emission is detected with a flux of about 4*10^(-14) erg/cm2/s (0.2-1.5 keV), corresponding to a f_X/f_bol ratio about 10^(-7); the source spectrum is very soft, and is well fit by the sum of two plasma components at different temperatures. Both characteristics are in agreement with what is observed in the main-sequence early-type stars, where the observed X-ray emission is due to turbulence and shocks in the stellar wind. A smaller but still significant stellar wind has been observed also in BD +37{deg} 1977; therefore, we suggest that also in this case the detected X-ray flux has the same origin.
We report on the results we obtained with XMM-Newton observations of HD49798 and BD+37 442, the only two sdO stars for which X-ray emission has been observed so far. HD is a single-lined spectroscopic binary with orbital period of 1.5 days. We could establish that its companion is a massive white dwarf with M = 1.28 Msun, which makes it a candidate type Ia supernova progenitor; we also detected a significant X-ray emission during the white-dwarf eclipse, which could be X-ray emission of the sdO star itself. In the case of BD+37 442, a luminous He-rich sdO that up to now was believed to be a single star, we discovered soft X-ray emission with a periodicity of 19.2 s. This indicates that also this hot subdwarf has a compact binary companion, either a white dwarf or a neutron star, most likely powered by accretion from the wind of the sdO star.
X-ray observations of sdO stars are a useful tool to investigate their properties, but so far only two sdO stars were detected at X-rays. We observed a complete flux-limited sample of 19 sdO stars with the Chandra HRC-I camera to measure the count rate of the detected sources or to set a tight upper limit on it for the undetected sources. We obtained a robust detection of BD+37 1977 and Feige 34 and a marginal detection of BD+28 4211. The estimated luminosity of BD+37 1977 is above 10^31 erg/s, which is high enough to suggest the possible presence of an accreting compact companion. This possibility is unlikely for all the other targets (both detected and undetected), since in their case L_X < 10^30 erg/s. On the other hand, for all 19 targets the estimated value of L_X (or its upper limit) implies an X-ray/bolometric flux ratio that agrees with log(L_X/L_bol) = -6.7 +/- 0.5, which is the range of values typical of main-sequence and giant O stars. Therefore, for Feige 34 and BD+28 4211 the observed X-ray flux is most probably due to intrinsic emission. The same is possibile for the 16 undetected stars.
Ultra-compact X-ray binaries (UCXBs) are low-mass X-ray binaries with hydrogen-deficient mass-donors and ultra-short orbital periods. They have been suggested to be the potential Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) sources in the low-frequency region. Several channels for the formation of UCXBs have been proposed so far. In this article, we carried out a systematic study on the He star donor channel, in which a neutron star (NS) accretes matter from a He main-sequence star through Roche-lobe overflow, where the mass-transfer is driven by gravitational wave radiation. Firstly, we followed the long-term evolution of the NS+He main-sequence star binaries by employing the stellar evolution code Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics, and thereby obtained the initial parameter spaces for the production of UCXBs. We then used these results to perform a detailed binary population synthesis approach to obtain the Galactic rates of UCXBs through this channel. We estimate the Galactic rates of UCXBs appearing as LISA sources to be $sim3.1-11.9, rm Myr^{-1}$ through this channel, and the number of such UCXB-LISA sources in the Galaxy can reach about $1-26$ calibrated by observations. The present work indicates that the He star donor channel may contribute significantly to the Galactic UCXB formation rate. We found that the evolutionary tracks of UCXBs through this channel can account for the location of the five transient sources with relatively long orbital periods quite well. We also found that such UCXBs can be identified by their locations in the mass-transfer rate versus the orbital period diagram.
We report the results of the first X-ray observation of the luminous and helium-rich O-type subdwarf BD+37 442, carried out with the XMM-Newton satellite in August 2011. X-ray emission is detected with a flux of about 3x10^(-14) erg/cm2/s (0.2-1 keV) and a very soft spectrum, well fit by the sum of a blackbody with temperature kT_BB = 45^(+11)_(-9) eV and a power law with a poorly constrained photon index. Significant pulsations with a period of 19.2 s are detected, indicating that the X-ray emission originates in a white dwarf or neutron star companion, most likely powered by accretion from the wind of BD+37 442.
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