No Arabic abstract
Half a year after its outburst, the nova V4743 Sgr evolved into the brightest super-soft X-ray source in the sky with a flux maximum around 30A, exhibiting resonance lines of C V, C VI, N VI, N VII, and O VII. We present preliminary results of an analysis of the XMM-Newton RGS spectra by means of NLTE model-atmosphere techniques.
V4743 Sgr (Nova Sgr 2002 No. 3) was discovered on 20 September 2002. We obtained a 5ks ACIS-S spectrum in November 2002 and found that the nova was faint in X-rays. We then obtained a 25ks CHANDRA LETGS observation on 19 March 2003. By this time, it had evolved into the Super Soft X-ray phase exhibiting a continuous spectrum with deep absorption features. The light curve from the observation showed large amplitude oscillations with a period of 1325s (22min) followed by a decline in total count rate after ~13ks of observations. The count rate dropped from ~40cts/s to practically zero within ~6ks and stayed low for the rest of the observation (~6ks). The spectral hardness ratio changed from maxima to minima in correlation with the oscillations, and then became significantly softer during the decay. Strong H-like and He-like lines of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon were found in absorption during the bright phase, indicating temperatures between 1-2MK, but they were shifted in wavelength corresponding to a Doppler velocity of -2400km/s. The spectrum obtained after the decline in count rate showed emission lines of CVI, NVI, and NVII suggesting that we were seeing expanding gas ejected during the outburst, probably originating from CNO-cycled material. An XMM-Newton ToO observation, obtained on 4 April 2003 and a later LETGS observation from 18 July 2003 also showed oscillations, but with smaller amplitudes.
The class of Super Soft Sources has been established after discoveries performed with the Einstein and the ROSAT satellite. Only sources contributing to the class of super-soft X-ray binaries are considered. The X-ray emission in these sources is due to thermonuclear burning of accreted material on the surface of a white dwarf. The physical process of nuclear burning is described. The typical timescales of variability in these sources are discussed. The appearance and modeling of supersoft X-ray spectra are described. The phenomena related to the accretion disk in these sources are outlined. A discussion of the nature and appearance of the donor star is given. The evolutionary state of these sources and their likely progenitorship for Type Ia supernovae is shortly outlined. A summary of recent discoveries with Chandra and XMM-Newton of super-soft sources in nearby spiral and elliptical galaxies is given.
We study populations of soft and super-soft X-ray sources in nearby galaxies of various morphological types with the special emphasis on characterizing populations of stable nuclear burning accreting WDs. Analysing the content of Chandra archive we assembled a sample of nearby galaxies suitable for studying populations of super-soft X-ray sources. Our sample includes 4 spiral galaxies, 2 lenticular galaxies and 3 ellipticals with stellar mass exceeding $10^{10}$ $M_odot$ and X-ray sensitivity of the order of a ${rm few}times 10^{36}$ erg/s. We used combination of hardness ratio and median energy to pre-select X-ray sources with soft spectra, and temperature - X-ray luminosity diagram to identify super-soft X-ray sources - likely nuclear burning accreting white dwarfs. For spiral galaxies, there is a distinct and rare population of super-soft sources, largely detached from the rest of sources on the $kT_{bb}-L_X$ plane. The boundary between these sources and the much more numerous population of harder (but still soft) sources is consistent with the boundary of stable hydrogen burning on the white dwarf surface. Combined spectrum of soft sources located outside this boundary, shows clear emission lines of Mg and S, which equivalent width is similar to that in the combined spectrum of a large number of confirmed supernova remnants in M83. This confirms earlier suggestions that the vast majority of so called quasi-soft sources are supernova remnants. In early-type galaxies, populations of super-soft sources are about a factor of $approx 8$ less abundant, in broad agreement with the population synthesis calculations. Specific frequencies of super-soft sources are: (2.08$pm$0.46)$times10^{-10}$ M$_{odot}^{-1}$ in spiral galaxies and (2.47$pm$1.34)$times10^{-11}$ M$_{odot}^{-1}$ in lenticular and elliptical galaxies, with the ratio of the latter to the former of $0.12pm0.05$.
We study spectral variability of 11 ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX) using archived XMM-Newton and Chandra observations. We use three models to describe the observed spectra: a power-law, a multi-colour disc (MCD) and a combination of these two models. We find that 7 ULXs show a correlation between the luminosity Lx and the photon index Gamma. Furthermore, 4 out of these 7 ULXs also show spectral pivoting in the observed energy band. We also find that two ULXs show an Lx-Gamma anti-correlation. The spectra of 4 ULXs in the sample can be adequately fitted with a MCD model. We compare these sources to known black hole binaries (BHB) and find that they follow similar paths in their luminosity-temperature diagrams. Finally we show that the `soft excess reported for many of these ULXs at about 0.2 keV seems to roughly follow a trend Lsoft propto T^{-3.5} when modelled with a power-law plus a `cool MCD model. This is contrary to the L propto T^4 relation that is expected from theory and what is seen for many accreting BHBs. The observed trend could instead arise from disc emission beamed by an outflowing wind around a about 10 solar mass black hole.
We study spectral variability of 11 ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX) using archived XMM-Newton and Chandra observations. We use three models to describe the observed spectra; a power-law, a multi-colour disk (MCD) and a combination of these two models. We find that out of the 11 ULXs in our sample, 7 ULXs show a correlation between the luminosity and the photon index Gamma (hereafter L-Gamma correlation). Furthermore, out of the 7 ULXs that have the L-Gamma correlation, 4 ULXs also show spectral pivoting in the observed energy band. We also find that two ULXs show an L-Gamma anti-correlation. The spectra of 4 ULXs in the sample can be adequately fitted with a MCD model. We compare these sources to known black hole binaries (BHB) and find that they follow similar paths in their luminosity-temperature (hereafter L-T) diagrams. Finally we show that the soft excess reported for many of these ULXs at 0.2 keV seem to follow a trend L propto T^{-4} when modeled with a power-law plus a cool MCD model. This is contrary to the expected L propto T^4 relation that is expected from theory and what is seen for many accreting BHBs.