27 research outputs found
Studies of orbital parameters and pulse profile of the accreting millisecond pulsar XTE J1807-294
The accreting millisecond pulsar XTE J1807-294 was observed by XMM-Newton on
March 22, 2003 after its discovery on February 21, 2003 by RXTE. The source was
detected in its bright phase with an observed average count rate of 33.3 cts/s
in the EPIC-pn camera in the 0.5-10 keV energy band (3.7 mCrab). Using the
earlier established best-fit orbital period of 40.0741+/-0.0005 minutes from
RXTE observations and considering a circular binary orbit as first
approximation, we derived a value of 4.8+/-0.1 lt-ms for the projected orbital
radius of the binary system and an epoch of the orbital phase of MJD
52720.67415(16). The barycentric mean spin period of the pulsar was derived as
5.2459427+/-0.0000004 ms. The pulsar's spin-pulse profile showed a prominent
(1.5 ms FWHM) pulse, with energy and orbital phase dependence in the amplitude
and shape. The measured pulsed fraction in four energy bands was found to be
3.1+/-0.2 % (0.5-3.0 keV), 5.4+/-0.4 % (3.0-6.0 keV), 5.1+/-0.7 % (6.0-10.0
keV) and 3.7+/-0.2 % (0.5-10.0 keV), respectively. Studies of spin-profiles
with orbital phase and energy showed significant increase in its pulsed
fraction during the second observed orbit of the neutron star, gradually
declining in the subsequent two orbits, which was associated with sudden but
marginal increase in mass accretion. From our investigations of orbital
parameters and estimation of other properties of this compact binary system, we
conclude that XTE J1807-294 is very likely a candidate for a millisecond radio
pulsar.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysics letter
The XMM-Newton view of the Crab
Aims. We discuss the current X-ray view of the Crab Nebula and Pulsar, summarising our analysis of observations of the source with the EPIC-pn camera on board the XMM-Newton observatory. Different modes of EPIC-pn were combined in order to yield a complete scenario of the spectral properties of the Crab resolved in space and time (pulse phase). In addition we give a description of the special
EPIC-pn Burst mode and guidance for data reduction in that mode.
Methods. We analysed spectra for the nebula and pulsar separately in the 0.6−12.0 keV energy band. All data were processed with the
SAS 6.0.0 XMM-Newton Scientific Analysis System package; models were fitted to the data with XSPEC 11. The high time resolution of EPIC-pn in its Burst mode (7 μs) was used for a phase resolved analysis of the pulsar spectrum, after determination of the period with epoch folding techniques. Data from the SmallWindow mode were processed and corrected for pile-up allowing for spectroscopy
simultaneously resolved in space and time.
Results. The spatial variation of the spectrum over the entire region of the Crab shows a gradual spectral softening from the inner pulsar region to the outer nebula region with a variation in photon index, Γ, from 2.0 to 2.4. Pulse phase resolved spectroscopy of the Crab Pulsar reveals a phase dependent modulation of the photon index in form of a significant hardening of the spectrum in the
inter-peak phase from Γ = 1.7 during the pulse peak to Γ = 1.5