We report results of one-day simultaneous multiwavelength observations of Cygnus X-2 using XMM, Chandra, the European VLBI Network and the XMM Optical Monitor. During the observations, the source did not exhibit Z-track movement, but remained in the
vicinity of the soft apex. It was in a radio quiescent/quiet state of < 150 microJy. Strong dip events were seen as 25% reductions in X-ray intensity. The use of broadband CCD spectra in combination with narrow-band grating spectra has now demonstrated for the first time that these dipping events in Cygnus X-2 are caused by absorption in cool material in quite a unique way. In the band 0.2 - 10 keV, dipping appears to be due to progressive covering of the Comptonized emission of an extended accretion disk corona, the covering factor rising to 40% in deep dipping with an associated column density of 3.10^{23} atom cm^{-2}. Remarkably, the blackbody emission of the neutron star is not affected by these dips, in strong contrast with observations of typical low mass X-ray binary dipping sources. The Chandra and XMM gratings directly measure the optical depths in absorption edges such as Ne K, Fe L, and O K and a comparison of the optical depths in the edges of non-dip and dip data reveals no increase of optical depth during dipping even though the continuum emission sharply decreases. Based on these findings, at orbital phase 0.35, we propose that dipping in this observation is caused by absorption in the outer disk by structures located opposite to the impact bulge of the accretion stream. With an inclination angle > 60 deg, these structures can still cover large parts of the extended ADC, without absorbing emission from the central neutral star.
We observed at very high spectral resolution the prototype Z-source Cyg x-2 twice along its entire X-ray spectral variation pattern. In this preliminary analysis we find an extended accretion disk corona exhibiting Lyman alpha emissions from various
H-like ions, as well as emissions from He-like ions of Fe and Al, and Li-like ions of Fe. The brightest lines show a range of line broadening: H-like lines are very broad with Doppler velocities between 1100 and 2700 km/s, while some others are narrower with widths of a few hundred km/s. Line diagnostics allow us for the first time to determine coronal parameters. The line properties are consistent with a stationary, extended up to 10^10 cm, dense (1x10^15 cm^-3), and hot (log xi > 3; T > 10^6 K) accretion disk corona. We find ongoing heating of the corona along the Z-track and determine that heating luminosities change from about 0.4 L_Edd on the horizontal to about 1.4 L_Edd on the flaring branch.
We observed Circinus X-1 twice during a newly reached low-flux phase near zero orbital phase using the High-Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS) onboard Chandra. In both observations the source did not show the P Cygni lines we observed d
uring the high-flux phases of the source in 2000 and 2001. During pre-zero phase the source did not exhibit significant variability and exhibited an emission-line spectrum rich in H- and He-like lines from high Z elements such as Si, S, Ar, and Ca. We analyzed all high resolution X-ray spectra by fitting photoionization and absorption models from the most recent version of the XSTAR code. The pre-zero phase spectrum could be fully modeled with a very hot photoionized plasma with an ionization parameter of log xi = 3.0. Post-zero phase episodes feature absorbers with variable high columns, ionization parameter, and luminosity. While cold absorption remains at levels quite similar to the one observed in previous years, the new observations show unprecedented levels of variable warm absorption. The line emissivities also indicate that the observed low source luminosity is inconsistent with a static hot accretion disk corona (ADC), an effect that seems common to other near edge-on ADC sources as well. We conclude that unless there exists some means of coronal heating other than X-rays, the true source luminosity is likely much higher and we observe obscuration in analogy to the extragalactic Seyfert II sources. We discuss possible consequences and relate cold, luke-warm, warm, and hot absorbers to dynamic accretion scenarios.
We analyzed the zero-order image of a 50 ks Chandra gratings observation of Circinus X-1, taken in 2005 during the sources low-flux state. Circinus X-1 is an accreting neutron star that exhibits ultra-relativistic arcsecond-scale radio jets and diffu
se arcminute-scale radio jets and lobes. The image shows a clear excess along the general direction of the north-western counter-jet, coincident with the radio emission, suggesting that it originates either in the jet itself or in the shock the jet is driving into its environment. This makes Circinus X-1 the first neutron star for which an extended X-ray jet has been detected. The kinetic jet power we infer is significantly larger than the minimum power required for the jet to inflate the large scale radio nebula.
