The Be/X-ray binary SXP 1062 is of especial interest owing to the large spin period of the neutron star, its large spin-down rate, and the association with a supernova remnant constraining its age. This makes the source an important probe for accretion physics. To investigate the long-term evolution of the spin period and associated spectral variations, we performed an XMM-Newton target-of-opportunity observation of SXP 1062 during X-ray outburst. Spectral and timing analysis of the XMM-Newton data was compared with previous studies, as well as complementary Swift/XRT monitoring and optical spectroscopy with the SALT telescope were obtained. The spin period was measured to be Ps=(1071.01+/-0.16)s on 2012 Oct 14. The X-ray spectrum is similar to that of previous observations. No convincing cyclotron absorption features, which could be indicative for a high magnetic field strength, are found. The high-resolution RGS spectra indicate the presence of emission lines, which may not completely be accounted for by the SNR emission. The comparison of multi-epoch optical spectra suggest an increasing size or density of the decretion disc around the Be star. SXP 1062 showed a net spin-down with an average of dPs/dt=(2.27+/-0.44)s/yr over a baseline of 915 days.
After 33 years of extensive studies of SS 433, we have learnt much about this unique system with moving emission lines in the spectrum. The orbital inclination is known from spectroscopic observations of moving lines; the distance is derived from radio interferometry of relativistic jets; the mass ratio of its components is determined from X-ray observations of jets' eclipses. In 2005, the accretion donor was detected as an A4-A8 giant, and its contribution to eclipse light was measured spectroscopically. In the present paper, the A-type star was detected via multicolor photometry on the basis of its Balmer jump. A method is proposed to estimate the interstellar reddening, able to measure the individual law of interstellar absorption for SS 433 from spectrophotometry.
We perform the first high-sensitivity soft X-ray long-term monitoring with Swift/XRT of three relatively unexplored supergiant fast X-ray transients (SFXTs), IGR J08408-4503, IGR J16328-4726, and IGR J16465-4507, whose hard X-ray duty cycles are the lowest measured among the SFXT sample, and compare their properties with those of the prototypical SFXTs. The behaviour of J08408 and J16328 resembles that of other SFXTs, and it is characterized by a relatively high inactivity duty cycle (IDC) and pronounced dynamic range (DR) in the X-ray luminosity. Like the SFXT prototypes, J08408 shows two distinct populations of flares, the first one associated with the brightest outbursts (L_X_>=10^35-36^erg/s), the second one comprising less bright events with L_X_<=10^35^erg/s. This double-peaked distribution seems to be a ubiquitous feature of the extreme SFXTs. The lower DR of J16328 suggests it is an intermediate SFXT. We find J16465 is characterized by IDC~5% and DR~40, reminiscent of classical supergiant HMXBs. The duty cycles measured with XRT are found to be comparable with those reported previously by BAT and INTEGRAL, when the higher limiting sensitivities of these instruments are taken into account and sufficiently long observational campaigns are available. We prove that no clear correlation exists between the duty cycles of the SFXTs and their orbital periods, which makes it difficult to interpret the SFXT peculiar variability by only using arguments related to the properties of supergiant star winds. Our findings favour the idea that a correct interpretation of the SFXT phenomenology requires a mechanism to strongly reduce the mass accretion rate onto the compact object during most of its orbit around the companion, as proposed in a number of theoretical works.
Swift J1745-26 is an X-ray binary towards the Galactic Centre that was detected when it went into outburst in 2012 September. This source is thought to be one of a growing number of sources that display `failed outbursts', in which the self-absorbed radio jets of the transient source are never fully quenched and the thermal emission from the geometrically thin inner accretion disc never fully dominates the X-ray flux. We present multifrequency data from the Very Large Array, Australia Telescope Compact Array and Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7) radio arrays, spanning the entire period of the outburst. Our rich data set exposes radio emission that displays a high level of large-scale variability compared to the X-ray emission and deviations from the standard radio-X-ray correlation that are indicative of an unstable jet and confirm the outburst's transition from the canonical hard state to an intermediate state. We also observe steepening of the spectral index and an increase of the linear polarization to a large fraction (~50%) of the total flux, as well as a rotation of the electric vector position angle. These are consistent with a transformation from a self-absorbed compact jet to optically thin ejecta - the first time such a discrete ejection has been observed in a failed outburst - and may imply a complex magnetic field geometry.
Swift/XRT and NICER timing study of MAXI J1820+070
Short Name:
J/ApJ/889/142
Date:
03 Dec 2021 13:13:00
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We present a detailed timing analysis of the bright black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1820+070 (ASASSN-18ey), during its first detected outburst lasting from 2018 March until 2019 October based on Swift/XRT window timing mode observations, corresponding UVOT data and NICER observations. The light curves clearly show four outbursts, with the source remaining in the hard state during its first outburst, while the rise of the second outburst corresponds with the transition to the soft state. A similar double outburst of GX339-4 has been observed in 2004. Here it is followed by two hard-state only outbursts. In many observations the power density spectra showed type-C quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) with characteristic frequencies below 1Hz, which suggests that the source stayed in a state of low effective accretion for large parts of its outburst. The absence of other types of QPOs hinders a precise determination of the state transitions, but from combining NICER and Swift/XRT data, we find that MAXI J1820+070 went from the hard-intermediate to the soft state in less than one day. The covariance ratios derived from NICER data show an increase toward lower energies, which indicate that the source should make a transition to the soft state. This transition finally took place, after MAXI J1820+070 stayed in the hard state at rather constant luminosity for about 116 days. The steepness of the increase of the covariance ratios is not correlated with the amount of rms variability and it does not show a monotonic evolution along the outburst.
We present an energy dependent X-ray variability study of the 2010 outburst of the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1659-152 with the Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT). The broadband noise components and the quasi-periodic oscillations (QPO) observed in the power spectra show a strong and varied energy dependence. Combining Swift XRT data with data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, we report, for the first time, an rms spectrum (fractional rms amplitude as a function of energy) of these components in the 0.5-30keV energy range. We find that the strength of the low-frequency component (<0.1Hz) decreases with energy, contrary to the higher frequency components (>0.1Hz) whose strengths increase with energy. In the context of the propagating fluctuations model for X-ray variability, we suggest that the low-frequency component originates in the accretion disk (which dominates emission below ~2keV) and the higher frequency components are formed in the hot flow (which dominates emission above ~2keV). As the properties of the QPO suggest that it may have a different driving mechanism, we investigate the Lense-Thirring precession of the hot flow as a candidate model. We also report on the QPO coherence evolution for the first time in the energy band below 2keV. While there are strong indications that the QPO is less coherent at energies below 2keV than above 2keV, the coherence increases with intensity similar to what is observed at energies above 2keV in other black hole X-ray binaries.
We present results of fitting power density spectra from archived Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) data of the source Cygnus X-1. The data cover the observations of the source during 1996-2003, and all spectral states are included.
We present the most likely optical counterparts of 113 X-ray sources detected in our Chandra survey of the central region of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) based on the OGLE-II and Magellanic Clouds Photometric Survey catalogs. We estimate that the foreground contamination and chance coincidence probability are minimal for the bright optical counterparts (corresponding to OB type stars; 35 in total). We propose here for the first time 13 high-mass X-ray binaries, of which four are Be/X-ray binaries (Be-XRBs), and we confirm the previous classification of 18 Be-XRBs. We estimate that the new candidate Be-XRBs have an age of ~15-85Myr, consistent with the age of Be stars.
In this Letter we present the result of the cross correlation between the fourth INTEGRAL/IBIS soft gamma-ray catalog, in the range 20-100keV, and the Fermi LAT bright source list of objects emitting in the 100MeV-100GeV range. The main result is that only a minuscule part of the more than 720 sources detected by INTEGRAL and the population of 205 Fermi LAT sources are detected in both spectral regimes. This is in spite of the mCrab INTEGRAL sensitivity for both galactic and extragalactic sources and the breakthrough, in terms of sensitivity, achieved by Fermi at MeV-GeV energies. The majority of the 14 Fermi LAT sources clearly detected in the fourth INTEGRAL/IBIS catalog are optically identified active galactic nuclei (10) complemented by two isolated pulsars (Crab and Vela) and two high-mass X-ray binaries (LS I +61 303 and LS 5039). Two more possible associations have been found: one is 0FGL J1045.6-5937, possibly the counterpart at high energy of the massive colliding wind binary system Eta Carinae, discovered to be a soft gamma ray emitter by recent INTEGRAL observations and 0FGL J1746.0-2900 coincident with IGR J17459-2902, but still not identified with any known object at lower energy. For the remaining 189 Fermi LAT sources no INTEGRAL counterpart was found and we report the 2{sigma} upper limit in the energy band 20-40keV.
We introduce the Galactic Bulge Survey (GBS) and we provide the Chandra source list for the region that has been observed to date. Among the goals of the GBS are constraining the neutron star (NS) equation of state and the black hole (BH) mass distribution via the identification of eclipsing NS and BH low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). The GBS targets two strips of 6{deg}x1{deg} (12deg^2^ in total), one above (1{deg}<b<2{deg}) and one below (-2{deg}<b<-1{deg}) the Galactic plane in the direction of the Galactic center at both X-ray and optical wavelengths. By avoiding the Galactic plane (-1{deg}<b<1{deg}) we limit the influence of extinction on the X-ray and optical emission but still sample relatively large number densities of sources. The survey is designed such that a large fraction of the X-ray sources can be identified from their optical spectra. The X-ray survey, by design, covers a large area on the sky while the depth is shallow using 2ks per Chandra pointing. In this way we maximize the predicted number ratio of (quiescent) LMXBs to cataclysmic variables. The survey is approximately homogeneous in depth to a 0.5-10keV flux of 7.7x10^-14^erg/cm^2^/s. So far, we have covered about two-thirds (8.3deg^2^) of the projected survey area with Chandra providing over 1200 unique X-ray sources. We discuss the characteristics and the variability of the brightest of these sources.
