ترغب بنشر مسار تعليمي؟ اضغط هنا

Constraints on the Neutron Star and Inner Accretion Flow in Serpens X-1 Using NuSTAR

63   0   0.0 ( 0 )
 نشر من قبل Jon M. Miller
 تاريخ النشر 2013
  مجال البحث فيزياء
والبحث باللغة English
 تأليف J. M. Miller




اسأل ChatGPT حول البحث

We report on an observation of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary Serpens X-1, made with NuSTAR. The extraordinary sensitivity afforded by NuSTAR facilitated the detection of a clear, robust, relativistic Fe K emission line from the inner disk. A relativistic profile is required over a single Gaussian line from any charge state of Fe at the 5-sigma level of confidence, and any two Gaussians of equal width at the same confidence. The Compton back-scattering hump peaking in the 10-20 keV band is detected for the first time in a neutron star X-ray binary. Fits with relativistically-blurred disk reflection models suggest that the disk likely extends close to the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) or stellar surface. The best-fit blurred reflection models constrain the gravitational redshift from the stellar surface to be z > 0.16. The data are broadly compatible with the disk extending to the ISCO; in that case, z > 0.22 and R < 12.6 km (assuming M = 1.4 Msun and a=0, where a = cJ/GM^2). If the star is as large or larger than its ISCO, or if the effective reflecting disk leaks across the ISCO to the surface, the redshift constraints become measurements. We discuss our results in the context of efforts to measure fundamental properties of neutron stars, and models for accretion onto compact objects.

قيم البحث

اقرأ أيضاً

We report on an observation of the Galactic black hole candidate GRS 1739-278 during its 2014 outburst, obtained with NuSTAR. The source was captured at the peak of a rising low/hard state, at a flux of ~0.3 Crab. A broad, skewed iron line and disk r eflection spectrum are revealed. Fits to the sensitive NuSTAR spectra with a number of relativistically blurred disk reflection models yield strong geometrical constraints on the disk and hard X-ray corona. Two models that explicitly assume a lamppost corona find its base to have a vertical height above the black hole of h = 5 (+7, -2) GM/c^2 and h = 18 +/-4 GM/c^2 (90% confidence errors); models that do not assume a lamppost return emissivity profiles that are broadly consistent with coronae of this size. Given that X-ray microlensing studies of quasars and reverberation lags in Seyferts find similarly compact coronae, observations may now signal that compact coronae are fundamental across the black hole mass scale. All of the models fit to GRS 1739-278 find that the accretion disk extends very close to the black hole - the least stringent constraint is r = 5 (+3,-4) GM/c^2. Only two of the models deliver meaningful spin constraints, but a = 0.8 +/-0.2 is consistent with all of the fits. Overall, the data provide especially compelling evidence of an association between compact hard X-ray coronae and the base of relativistic radio jets in black holes.
Observational evidence has been accumulating that thermonuclear X-ray bursts ignited on the surface of neutron stars influence the surrounding accretion flow. Here, we exploit the excellent sensitivity of NuSTAR up to 79 keV to analyze the impact of an X-ray burst on the accretion emission of the neutron star LMXB 4U 1608-52. The ~200 s long X-ray burst occurred during a hard X-ray spectral state, and had a peak intensity of ~30-50 per cent of the Eddington limit with no signs of photospheric radius expansion. Spectral analysis suggests that the accretion emission was enhanced up to a factor of ~5 during the X-ray burst. We also applied a linear unsupervised decomposition method, namely non-negative matrix factorization (NMF), to study this X-ray burst. We find that the NMF performs well in characterizing the evolution of the burst emission and is a promising technique to study changes in the underlying accretion emission in more detail than is possible through conventional spectral fitting. For the burst of 4U 1608-52, the NMF suggests a possible softening of the accretion spectrum during the X-ray burst, which could potentially be ascribed to cooling of a corona. Finally, we report a small (~3 per cent) but significant rise in the accretion emission ~0.5 h before the X-ray burst, although it is unclear whether this was related to the X-ray burst ignition.
We analyze the latest emph{Suzaku} observation of the bright neutron star low-mass X-ray binary Serpens X-1 taken in 2013 October and 2014 April. The observation was taken using the burst mode and only suffered mild pile-up effects. A broad iron line is clearly detected in the X-ray spectrum. We test different models and find that the iron line is asymmetric and best interpreted by relativistic reflection. The relativistically broadened iron line is generally believed to originate from the innermost regions of the accretion disk, where strong gravity causes a series of special and general relativistic effects. The iron line profile indicates an inner radius of $sim8$ $R_{rm G}$, which gives an upper limit on the size of the neutron star. The asymmetric iron line has been observed in a number of previous observations, which gives several inner radius measurements at different flux states. We find that the inner radius of Serpens X-1 does not evolve significantly over the range of $L/L_{rm Edd}sim0.4-0.6$, and the lack of flux dependence of the inner radius implies that the accretion disk may be truncated outside the innermost stable circular orbit by the boundary layer rather than the stellar magnetic field.
We present simultaneous Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR ) and Suzaku observations of the X-ray binary Cygnus X-1 in the hard state. This is the first time this state has been observed in Cyg X-1 with NuSTAR, which enables us to study th e reflection and broad-band spectra in unprecedented detail. We confirm that the iron line cannot be fit with a combination of narrow lines and absorption features, and instead requires a relativistically blurred profile in combination with a narrow line and absorption from the companion wind. We use the reflection models of Garcia et al. (2014) to simultaneously measure the black hole spin, disk inner radius, and coronal height in a self-consistent manner. Detailed fits to the iron line profile indicate a high level of relativistic blurring, indicative of reflection from the inner accretion disk. We find a high spin, a small inner disk radius, and a low source height, and rule out truncation to greater than three gravitational radii at the 3{sigma} confidence level. In addition, we find that the line profile has not changed greatly in the switch from soft to hard states, and that the differences are consistent with changes in the underlying reflection spectrum rather than the relativistic blurring. We find that the blurring parameters are consistent when fitting either just the iron line or the entire broad-band spectrum, which is well modelled with a Comptonized continuum plus reflection model.
We present Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) observations of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary Serpens X-1 during the early mission phase in 2017. With the high spectral sensitivity and low-energy X-ray passband of NICER, we are able to detect the Fe L line complex in addition to the signature broad, asymmetric Fe K line. We confirm the presence of these lines by comparing the NICER data to archival observations with XMM-Newton/RGS and NuSTAR. Both features originate close to the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO). When modeling the lines with the relativistic line model RELLINE, we find the Fe L blend requires an inner disk radius of $1.4_{-0.1}^{+0.2}$ $R_{mathrm{ISCO}}$ and Fe K is at $1.03_{-0.03}^{+0.13}$ $R_{mathrm{ISCO}}$ (errors quoted at 90%). This corresponds to a position of $17.3_{-1.2}^{+2.5}$ km and $12.7_{-0.4}^{+1.6}$ km for a canonical neutron star mass ($M_{mathrm{NS}}=1.4 M_{odot}$) and dimensionless spin value of $a=0$. Additionally, we employ a new version of the RELXILL model tailored for neutron stars and determine that these features arise from a dense disk and supersolar Fe abundance.
التعليقات
جاري جلب التعليقات جاري جلب التعليقات
سجل دخول لتتمكن من متابعة معايير البحث التي قمت باختيارها
mircosoft-partner

هل ترغب بارسال اشعارات عن اخر التحديثات في شمرا-اكاديميا