No Arabic abstract
Decades of astrophysical observations have convincingly shown that soft X-ray (SXR; ~0.1--10 keV) emission provides unique diagnostics for the high temperature plasmas observed in solar flares and active regions. SXR observations critical for constraining models of energy release in these phenomena can be provided using instruments that have already been flown on sounding rockets and CubeSats, including miniaturized high-resolution photon-counting spectrometers and a novel diffractive spectral imager. These instruments have relatively low cost and high TRL, and would complement a wide range of mission concepts. In this white paper, we detail the scientific background and open questions motivating these instruments, the measurements required, and the instruments themselves that will make groundbreaking progress in answering these questions.
High-energy data of accreting white dwarfs give access to the regime of the primary accretion-induced energy release and the different proposed accretion scenarios. We perform XMM-Newton observations of polars selected due to their ROSAT hardness ratios close to -1.0 and model the emission processes in accretion column and accretion region. Our models consider the multi-temperature structure of the emission regions and are mainly determined by mass-flow density, magnetic field strength, and white-dwarf mass. To describe the full spectral energy distribution from infrared to X-rays in a physically consistent way, we include the stellar contributions and establish composite models, which will also be of relevance for future X-ray missions. We confirm the X-ray soft nature of three polars.
Wide-Field MAXI (WF-MAXI: Wide-Field Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image) is a proposed mission to detect and localize X-ray transients including electro-magnetic counterparts of gravitational-wave events such as gamma-ray bursts and supernovae etc., which are expected to be directly detected for the first time in late 2010s by the next generation gravitational telescopes such as Advanced LIGO and KAGRA. The most distinguishing characteristics of WF-MAXI are a wide energy range from 0.7 keV to 1 MeV and a large field of view (~25 % of the entire sky), which are realized by two main instruments: (i) Soft X-ray Large Solid Angle Camera (SLC) which consists of four pairs of crisscross coded aperture cameras using CCDs as one-dimensional fast-readout detectors covering 0.7 - 12 keV and (ii) Hard X-ray Monitor (HXM) which is a multi-channel array of crystal scintillators coupled with avalanche photo-diodes covering 20 keV - 1 MeV.
We present observations of four bright stars observed with the AstroSat Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT). Visible light from bright stars like these can leak through the very thin filter in front of the CCD in the focal plane CCD camera of the SXT and thus making the extraction of X-ray events difficult. Here, we show how to extract the X-ray events without contamination by the visible light. The procedure applied to four bright stars here demonstrates how reliable X-ray information can be derived in such cases. The sample of bright stars studied here consists of two A spectral types (HIP 19265, HIP 88580), one G/K Giant (Capella), and a nearby M-type dwarf (HIP 23309). No X-ray emission is observed from the A-type stars, as expected. X-ray spectra of Capella and HIP 23309 are derived and modeled here, and compared with the previous X-ray observations of these stars to show the reliability of the method used. We find that optical light can start to leak in the very soft energy bands below 0.5 keV for stars with V=8 mag. In the process, we present the first X-ray spectrum of HIP 23309.
The Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) aboard the $AstroSat$ satellite is the first Indian X-ray telescope in space. It is a modest size X-ray telescope with a charge coupled device (CCD) camera in the focal plane, which provides X-ray images in the $sim 0.3-8.0$ keV band. A forte of SXT is in providing undistorted spectra of relatively bright X-ray sources, in which it excels some current large CCD-based X-ray telescopes. Here, we highlight some of the published spectral and timing results obtained using the SXT data to demonstrate the capabilities and overall performance of this telescope.
RS Cae is the third target in our series of XMM-Newton observations of soft X-ray-dominated polars. Our observational campaign aims to better understand and describe the multiwavelength data, the physical properties of the system components, and the short- and long-term behavior of the component fluxes in RS Cae. We employ stellar atmosphere, stratified accretion-column, and widely used X-ray spectral models. We fit the XMM-Newton spectra, model the multiband light curves, and opt for a mostly consistent description of the spectral energy distribution. Results. Our XMM-Newton data of RS Cae are clearly dominated by soft X-ray emission. The X-ray light curves are shaped by emission from the main accretion region, which is visible over the whole orbital cycle, interrupted only by a stream eclipse. The optical light curves are formed by cyclotron and stream emission. The XMM-Newton X-ray spectra comprise a black-body-like and a plasma component at mean temperatures of 36eV and 7keV. The spectral fits give evidence of a partially absorbing and a reflection component. Multitemperature models, covering a broader temperature range in the X-ray emitting accretion regions, reproduce the spectra appropriately well. Including archival data, we describe the spectral energy distribution with a combination of models based on a consistent set of parameters and derive a lower limit estimate of the distance d > 750pc. Conclusions. The high bolometric soft-to-hard flux ratios and short-term variability of the (X-ray) light curves are characteristic of inhomogeneous accretion. RS Cae clearly belongs in the group of polars that show a very strong soft X-ray flux compared to their hard X-ray flux. The different black-body fluxes and similar hard X-ray and optical fluxes during the XMM-Newton and ROSAT observations show that soft and hard X-ray emission are not directly correlated.