An Adaptable Foveating Vision Chip

Published versio

Swift J1357.2-0933: the faintest black hole?

Swift J1357.2-0933 is the first confirmed very faint black hole X-ray transient and has a short estimated orbital period of 2.8 hr. We observed Swift J1357.2-0933 for ~50 ks with XMM-Newton in 2013 July during its quiescent state. The source is clearly detected at a 0.5-10 keV unabsorbed flux of ~3x10^-15 erg cm-2 s-1. If the source is located at a distance of 1.5 kpc (as suggested in the literature), this would imply a luminosity of ~8x10^29 erg s-1, making it the faintest detected quiescent black hole LMXB. This would also imply that there is no indication of a reversal in the quiescence X-ray luminosity versus orbital period diagram down to 2.8 hr, as has been predicted theoretically and recently supported by the detection of the 2.4 hr orbital period black hole MAXI J1659-152 at a 0.5-10 keV X-ray luminosity of ~ 1.2 x 10^31 erg s-1. However, there is considerable uncertainty in the distance of Swift J1357.2-0933 and it may be as distant as 6 kpc. In this case, its quiescent luminosity would be Lx ~ 1.3 x 10^31 erg s-1, i.e., similar to MAXI J1659-152 and hence it would support the existence of such a bifurcation period. We also detected the source in optical at r' ~22.3 mag with the Liverpool telescope, simultaneously to our X-ray observation. The X-ray/optical luminosity ratio of Swift J1357.2-0933 agrees with the expected value for a black hole at this range of quiescent X-ray luminosities.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

The return to quiescence of Aql X-1 following the 2010 outburst

Aql X-1 is the most prolific low mass X-ray binary transient hosting a neutron star. In this paper we focus on the return to quiescence following the 2010 outburst of the source. This decay was monitored thanks to 11 pointed observations taken with XMM-Newton, Chandra and Swift. The decay from outburst to quiescence is very fast, with an exponential decay characteristic time scale of ~2 d. Once in quiescence the X-ray flux of Aql X-1 remained constant, with no further signs of variability or decay. The comparison with the only other well-monitored outburst from Aql X-1 (1997) is tail-telling. The luminosities at which the fast decay starts are fully compatible for the two outbursts, hinting at a mechanism intrinsic to the system and possibly related to the neutron star rotation and magnetic field (i.e., the propeller effect). In addition, for both outbursts, the decay profiles are also very similar, likely resulting from the shut-off of the accretion process onto the neutron star surface. Finally, the quiescent neutron star temperatures at the end of the outbursts are well consistent with one another, suggesting a hot neutron star core dominating the thermal balance. Small differences in the quiescent X-ray luminosity among the two outbursts can be attributed to a different level of the power law component.Comment: MNRAS accepted (4 figures and 6 tables

Unveiling the hard X-ray spectrum from the "burst-only" source SAX J1753.5-2349 in outburst

Discovered in 1996 by BeppoSAX during a single type-I burst event, SAX J1753.5-2349 was classified as "burst-only" source. Its persistent emission, either in outburst or in quiescence, had never been observed before October 2008, when SAX J1753.5-2349 was observed for the first time in outburst. Based on INTEGRAL observations,we present here the first high-energy emission study (above 10 keV) of a so-called "burst-only". During the outburst the SAX J1753.5-2349 flux decreased from 10 to 4 mCrab in 18-40 keV, while it was found being in a constant low/hard spectral state. The broad-band (0.3-100 keV) averaged spectrum obtained by combining INTEGRAL/IBIS and Swift/XRT data has been fitted with a thermal Comptonisation model and an electron temperature >24 keV inferred. However, the observed high column density does not allow the detection of the emission from the neutron star surface. Based on the whole set of observations of SAX J1753.5-2349, we are able to provide a rough estimate of the duty cycle of the system and the time-averaged mass-accretion rate. We conclude that the low to very low luminosity of SAX J1753.5-2349 during outburst may make it a good candidate to harbor a very compact binary system.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter

An on/off spiking photoreceptor for adaptive ultrafast/ultrawide dynamic range vision chips

Published versio

Intermittent accreting millisecond pulsars: light houses with broken lamps?

Intermittent accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars are an exciting new type of sources. Their pulsations appear and disappear either on timescales of hundreds of seconds or on timescales of days. The study of these sources add new observational constraints to present models that explain the presence or not of pulsations in neutron star LMXBs. In this paper we present preliminary results on spectral and aperiodic variability studies of all intermittent AMSPs, with a particular focus on the comparison between pulsating and non pulsating periods.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; to appear in the proceedings of the workshop "A Decade of Accreting Millisecond X-ray Pulsars", Amsterdam, April 2008, eds. R. Wijnands et al. (AIP Conf. Proc.

Spectral evidence for jets from Accreting Millisecond X-ray Pulsars

Transient radio emission from X-ray binaries is associated with synchrotron emission from collimated jets that escape the system, and accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars (AMXPs) are no exception. Although jets from black hole X-ray binaries are well-studied, those from neutron star systems appear much fainter, for reasons yet uncertain. Jets are usually undetectable at higher frequencies because of the relative brightness of other components such as the accretion disc. AMXPs generally have small orbital separations compared with other X-ray binaries and as such their discs are relatively faint. Here, I present data that imply jets in fact dominate the radio-to-optical spectrum of outbursting AMXPs. They therefore may provide the best opportunity to study the behaviour of jets produced by accreting neutron stars, and compare them to those produced by black hole systems.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of "A Decade of Accreting Millisecond X-ray Pulsars", Amsterdam, April 2008, eds. R. Wijnands et al. (AIP Conf. Proc.

Probing the Crust of the Neutron Star in EXO 0748-676

X-ray observations of quiescent X-ray binaries have the potential to provide insight into the structure and the composition of neutron stars. EXO 0748-676 had been actively accreting for over 24 yr before its outburst ceased in late 2008. Subsequent X-ray monitoring revealed a gradual decay of the quiescent thermal emission that can be attributed to cooling of the accretion-heated neutron star crust. In this work, we report on new Chandra and Swift observations that extend the quiescent monitoring to ~5 yr post-outburst. We find that the neutron star temperature remained at ~117 eV between 2009 and 2011, but had decreased to ~110 eV in 2013. This suggests that the crust has not fully cooled yet, which is supported by the lower temperature of ~95 eV that was measured ~4 yr prior to the accretion phase in 1980. Comparing the data to thermal evolution simulations reveals that the apparent lack of cooling between 2009 and 2011 could possibly be a signature of convection driven by phase separation of light and heavy nuclei in the outer layers of the neutron star.Comment: 9 pages, 4 tables, 3 figures. Minor revisions according to referee report. Accepted to Ap

Vela X-1 as a laboratory for accretion in High-Mass X-ray Binaries

Vela X-1 is an eclipsing high mass X-ray binary (HMXB) consisting of a 283s accreting X-ray pulsar in a close orbit of 8.964 days around the B0.5Ib supergiant HD77581 at a distance of just 2.4 kpc. The system is considered a prototype of wind-accreting HMXB and it has been used as a baseline in different theoretical or modelling studies. We discuss the observational properties of the system and the use of the observational data as laboratory to test recent developments in modelling the accretion process in High-Mass X-ray Binaries (e.g., Sander et al. 2018; El Mellah et al. 2018), which range from detailed descriptions of the wind acceleration to modelling of the structure of the flow of matter close to the neutron star and its variations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of the 12th INTEGRAL conference "INTEGRAL looks AHEAD to Multimessenger astronomy" in Geneva (Switzerland) on 11-15 February 201