No Arabic abstract
We report the first broad-band (0.5-150 keV) simultaneous X-ray observations of the very faint X-ray transient IGRJ17285-2922/XTEJ1728-295 performed with XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL satellites during its last outburst, started on 2010, August 28. XMM-Newton observed the source on 2010 September 9-10, for 22ks. INTEGRAL observations were part of the publicly available Galactic Bulge program, and overlapped with the times covered by XMM-Newton. The broad-band spectroscopy resulted in a best-fit with an absorbed power law displaying a photon index of 1.61+/-0.01, an absorbing column density of (5.10+/-0.05)E21 cm-2, and a flux of 2.4E-10 erg/cm2/s (1-100 keV), corrected for the absorption. The data did not require either a spectral cut-off (E>50 keV) or an additional soft component. The slopes of the XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL separate spectra were compatible, within the uncertainties. The timing analysis does not show evidence either for X-ray pulsations or for type I X-ray bursts. The broad band X-ray spectrum as well as the power density spectrum are indicative of a low hard state in a low mass X-ray binary, although nothing conclusive can be said about the nature of the compact object (neutron star or black hole). The results we are reporting here allow us to conclude that IGRJ17285-2922 is a low mass X-ray binary, located at a distance greater than 4 kpc.
A growing group of low-mass X-ray binaries are found to be accreting at very-faint X-ray luminosities of <1E36 erg/s (2-10 keV). Once such system is the new X-ray transient IGR J17494-3030. We present Swift and XMM-Newton observations obtained during its 2012 discovery outburst. The Swift observations trace the peak of the outburst, which reached a luminosity of ~7 E35 (D/8 kpc)^2 erg/s (2-10 keV). The XMM-Newton data were obtained when the outburst had decayed to an intensity of ~ 8 E34 (D/8 kpc)^2 erg/s. The spectrum can be described by a power-law with an index of ~1.7 and requires an additional soft component with a black-body temperature of ~0.37 keV (contributing ~20% to the total unabsorbed flux in the 0.5-10 keV band). Given the similarities with high-quality spectra of very-faint neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries, we suggest that the compact primary in IGR J17494-3030 is a neutron star. Interestingly, the source intensity decreased rapidly during the ~12 hr XMM-Newton observation, which was accompanied by a decrease in inferred temperature. We interpret the soft spectral component as arising from the neutron star surface due to low-level accretion, and propose that the observed decline in intensity was the result of a decrease in the mass-accretion rate onto the neutron star.
We report our multiwavelength study of the 2011 outburst evolution of the newly discovered black hole candidate X-ray binary Swift J1357.2-0933. We analysed the Swift X-ray telescope and Ultraviolet/Optical telescope (UVOT) data taken during the ~7 months duration of the outburst. It displayed a 2-10 keV X-ray peak luminosity of ~1E35(D/1.5 kpc)^2 erg s-1 which classifies the source as a very faint X-ray transient. We found that the X-ray spectrum at the peak was consistent with the source being in the hard state, but it softened with decreasing luminosity, a common behaviour of black holes at low luminosities or returning to quiescence from the hard state. The correlations between the simultaneous X-ray and ultraviolet/optical data suggest a system with a black hole accreting from a viscous disc that is not irradiated. The UVOT filters provide the opportunity to study these correlations up to ultraviolet wavelengths a regime so far unexplored. If the black hole nature is confirmed, Swift J1357.2-0933 would be one of the very few established black hole very-faint X-ray transients.
On 2003 September 17 INTEGRAL discovered a bright transient source 3 degrees from the Galactic Center, IGR J17544-2619. The field containing the transient was observed by XMM-Newton on 2003 March 17 and September 11 and 17. A bright source, at a position consistent with the INTEGRAL location, was detected by the European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) during both September observations with mean 0.5-10 keV unabsorbed luminosities of 1.1x10^35 and 5.7x10^35 erg s-1 for an (assumed) distance of 8 kpc. The source was not detected in 2003 March, with a 0.5-10 keV luminosity of < 3.8x10^32 erg s-1. The September 11 and 17 EPIC spectra can be represented by a power-law model with photon indices of 2.25+/-0.15 and 1.42+/-0.17, respectively. Thus, the 0.5-10 keV spectrum hardens with increasing intensity. The low-energy absorption during both September observations is comparable to the interstellar value. The X-ray lightcurves for both September observations show energy dependent flaring which may be modeled by changes in either low-energy absorption or power-law index.
We report the results of an optical campaign carried out by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre with the specific goal of identifying the brightest X-ray sources in the XMM-Newton Galactic Plane Survey of Hands et al. (2004). In addition to photometric and spectroscopic observations obtained at the ESO-VLT and ESO-3.6m, we used cross-correlations with the 2XMMi, USNO-B1.0, 2MASS and GLIMPSE catalogues to progress the identification process. Active coronae account for 16 of the 30 identified X-ray sources. Many of the identified hard X-ray sources are associated with massive stars emitting at intermediate X-ray luminosities of 10^32-34 erg/s. Among these are a very absorbed likely hyper-luminous star with X-ray/optical spectra and luminosities comparable with those of eta Carina, a new X-ray selected WN8 Wolf-Rayet star, a new Be/X-ray star belonging to the growing class of Gamma-Cas analogs and a possible supergiant X-ray binary of the kind discovered recently by INTEGRAL. One of the sources, XGPS-25 has a counterpart which exhibits HeII 4686 and Bowen CIII-NIII emission lines suggesting a quiescent or X-ray shielded Low Mass X-ray Binary, although its properties might also be consistent with a rare kind of cataclysmic variable (CV). We also report the discovery of three new CVs, one of which is a likely magnetic system. The soft (0.4-2.0 keV) band LogN-LogS curve is completely dominated by active stars in the flux range of 1x10^-13 to 1x10^-14 erg/cm2/s. In total, we are able to identify a large fraction of the hard (2-10 keV) X-ray sources in the flux range of 1x10^-12 to 1x10^-13 erg/cm2/s with Galactic objects at a rate consistent with that expected for the Galactic contribution only. (abridged)
We report on the X-ray spectral (using XMM-Newton data) and timing behavior (using XMM-Newton and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer [RXTE] data) of the very faint X-ray transient and black hole system Swift J1357.2-0933 during its 2011 outburst. The XMM-Newton X-ray spectrum of this source can be adequately fitted with a soft thermal component with a temperature of ~0.22 keV (using a disc model) and a hard, non-thermal component with a photon index of ~1.6 when using a simple power-law model. In addition, an edge at ~ 0.73 keV is needed likely due to interstellar absorption. During the first RXTE observation we find a 6 mHz quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) which is not present during any of the later RXTE observations or during the XMM-Newton observation which was taken 3 days after the first RXTE observation. The nature of this QPO is not clear but it could be related to a similar QPO seen in the black hole system H 1743-322 and to the so-called 1 Hz QPO seen in the dipping neutron-star X-ray binaries (although this later identification is quite speculative). The observed QPO has similar frequencies as the optical dips seen previously in this source during its 2011 outburst but we cannot conclusively determine that they are due to the same underlying physical mechanism. Besides the QPO, we detect strong band-limited noise in the power-density spectra of the source (as calculated from both the RXTE and the XMM-Newton data) with characteristic frequencies and strengths very similar to other black hole X-ray transients when they are at low X-ray luminosities. We discuss the spectral and timing properties of the source in the context of the proposed very high inclination of this source. We conclude that all the phenomena seen from the source cannot, as yet, be straightforwardly explained neither by an edge-on configuration nor by any other inclination configuration of the orbit.