278 research outputs found
The eclipsing bursting X-ray binary EXO 0748-676 revisited by XMM-Newton
The bright eclipsing and bursting low-mass X-ray binary EXO 0748-676 has been
observed at several occasions by XMM-Newton during the initial calibration and
performance verification (CAL/PV) phase. We present here the results obtained
from observations with the EPIC cameras. Apart from several type-I X-ray
bursts, the source shows a high degree of variability with the presence of soft
flares. The wide energy coverage and high sensitivity of XMM-Newton allows for
the first time a detailed description of the spectral variability.
The source is found to be the superposition of a central (~2 10^8 cm)
Comptonized emission, most probably a corona surrounding the inner edge of an
accretion disk, associated with a more extended (~3 10^10 cm) thermal halo at a
typical temperature of ~0.6 keV with an indication of non-solar abundances.
Most of the variations of the source can be accounted for by a variable
absorption affecting only the central comptonized component and reaching up to
NH ~1.3 10^23 cm^{-2}. The characteristics of the surrounding halo are found
compatible with an irradiated atmosphere of an accretion disc which intercepts
the central emission due to the system high inclination.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&A Letters, XMM
special issu
The highly ionized disk wind of GRO J1655-40
Aims: The galactic superluminal microquasar GRO J1655-40 started a new
outburst in February 2005, after seven years in quiescence, rising to a
high/soft state in March 2005. In this paper we study the X-ray spectra during
this rise. Methods: We observed GRO J1655-40 with XMM-Newton, on 27 February
2005, in the low/hard state, and on three consecutive days in March 2005,
during the rise of the source to its high/soft state. The EPIC-pn camera was
used in the fast-read Burst mode to avoid photon pile-up. Results: First, we
contributed to the improvement of the calibration of the EPIC-pn, since the
high flux received from the source required some refinements in the correction
of the Charge Transfer Efficiency of the camera.Second, we find that the X-ray
spectrum of GRO J1655-40 is dominated in the high/soft state by the thermal
emission from the accretion disk, with an inner radius of 13-14(D/3.2kpc)km and
a maximum temperature of 1.3 keV. Two absorption lines are detected in the
EPIC-pn spectra, at 6.7-6.8 and 7.8-8.0 keV, which can be identified either as
blended Fe XXV and Fe XXVI K-alpha and K-beta lines, or as blueshifted Fe XXV.
We find no orbital dependence on the X-ray properties, which provides an upper
limit for the inclination of the system of 73 degr. The RGS spectrometers
reveal interstellar absorption features at 17.2AA, 17.5AA (Fe L edges) and
23.54AA (OI K-alpha). Finally, while checking the interstellar origin of the OI
line, we find a general correlation of the OI K-alpha line equivalent width
with the hydrogen column density using several sources available in the
literature.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables. Revised version with important change
Discovery of a Cyclotron Resonance Scattering Feature in the X-ray Spectrum of XTE J1946+274
Observations of the transient accreting pulsar XTE J1946+274 made with the
Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer during the course of the 1998 September-November
outburst, reveal a cyclotron resonance scattering feature (or "cyclotron line")
in the hard X-ray spectrum near 35 keV. We determine a centroid energy of 36.2
+0.5/-0.7 keV, which implies a magnetic field strength of 3.1(1+z)x10^12 G,
where z is the gravitational redshift of the scattering region. The optical
depth, Tau = 0.33 +0.07/-0.06, and width, sigma = 3.37 +0.92/-0.75 keV, are
typical of known cyclotron lines in other pulsars. This discovery makes XTE
J1946+274 one of thirteen pulsars with securely detected cyclotron lines
resulting in direct magnetic field measurements.Comment: Five pages including four postscript figures and two tables. Uses
emulateapj5. Published in ApJ Letters:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2001ApJ...563L..35
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