2,427 research outputs found
Numerical solution of the radiative transfer equation: X-ray spectral formation from cylindrical accretion onto a magnetized neutron star
Predicting the emerging X-ray spectra in several astrophysical objects is of
great importance, in particular when the observational data are compared with
theoretical models. To this aim, we have developed an algorithm solving the
radiative transfer equation in the Fokker-Planck approximation when both
thermal and bulk Comptonization take place. The algorithm is essentially a
relaxation method, where stable solutions are obtained when the system has
reached its steady-state equilibrium. We obtained the solution of the radiative
transfer equation in the two-dimensional domain defined by the photon energy E
and optical depth of the system tau using finite-differences for the partial
derivatives, and imposing specific boundary conditions for the solutions. We
treated the case of cylindrical accretion onto a magnetized neutron star. We
considered a blackbody seed spectrum of photons with exponential distribution
across the accretion column and for an accretion where the velocity reaches its
maximum at the stellar surface and at the top of the accretion column,
respectively. In both cases higher values of the electron temperature and of
the optical depth tau produce flatter and harder spectra. Other parameters
contributing to the spectral formation are the steepness of the vertical
velocity profile, the albedo at the star surface, and the radius of the
accretion column. The latter parameter modifies the emerging spectra in a
specular way for the two assumed accretion profiles. The algorithm has been
implemented in the XSPEC package for X-ray spectral fitting and is specifically
dedicated to the physical framework of accretion at the polar cap of a neutron
star with a high magnetic field (> 10^{12} G), which is expected to be typical
of accreting systems such as X-ray pulsars and supergiant fast X-ray
transients.Comment: 13 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in A&
A new model for the X-ray continuum of the magnetized accreting pulsars
Accreting highly magnetized pulsars in binary systems are among the brightest
X-ray emitters in our Galaxy. Although a number of high statistical quality
broad-band (0.1-100 keV) X-ray observations are available, the spectral energy
distribution of these sources is usually investigated by adopting pure
phenomenological models, rather than models linked to the physics of accretion.
In this paper, a detailed spectral study of the X-ray emission recorded from
the high-mass X-ray binary pulsars Cen X-3, 4U 0115+63, and Her X-1 is carried
out by using BeppoSAX and joined Suzaku+NuStar data, together with an advanced
version of the compmag model. The latter provides a physical description of the
high energy emission from accreting pulsars, including the thermal and bulk
Comptonization of cyclotron and bremsstrahlung seed photons along the neutron
star accretion column. The compmag model is based on an iterative method for
solving second-order partial differential equations, whose convergence
algorithm has been improved and consolidated during the preparation of this
paper. Our analysis shows that the broad-band X-ray continuum of all considered
sources can be self-consistently described by the compmag model. The cyclotron
absorption features, not included in the model, can be accounted for by using
Gaussian components. From the fits of the compmag model to the data we inferred
the physical properties of the accretion columns in all sources, finding values
reasonably close to those theoretically expected according to our current
understanding of accretion in highly magnetized neutron stars. The updated
version of the compmag model has been tailored to the physical processes that
are known to occur in the columns of highly magnetized accreting neutron stars
and it can thus provide a better understanding of the high energy radiation
from these sources.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&
RX J0440.9+4431: a persistent Be/X-ray binary in outburst
The persistent Be/X-ray binary RX J0440.9+4431 flared in 2010 and 2011 and
has been followed by various X-ray facilities Swift, RXTE, XMM-Newton, and
INTEGRAL. We studied the source timing and spectral properties as a function of
its X-ray luminosity to investigate the transition from normal to flaring
activity and the dynamical properties of the system. We have determined the
orbital period from the long-term Swift/BAT light curve, but our determinations
of the spin period are not precise enough to constrain any orbital solution.
The source spectrum can always be described by a bulk-motion Comptonization
model of black body seed photons attenuated by a moderate photoelectric
absorption. At the highest luminosity, we measured a curvature of the spectrum,
which we attribute to a significant contribution of the radiation pressure in
the accretion process. This allows us to estimate that the transition from a
bulk-motion-dominated flow to a radiatively dominated one happens at a
luminosity of ~2e36 erg/s. The luminosity dependency of the size of the black
body emission region is found to be . This
suggests that either matter accreting onto the neutron star hosted in RX
J0440.9+4431 penetrates through closed magnetic field lines at the border of
the compact object magnetosphere or that the structure of the neutron star
magnetic field is more complicated than a simple dipole close to the surfaceComment: Accepted for publication by A&
The X-ray spectrum of the bursting atoll source 4U~1728-34 observed with INTEGRAL
We present for the first time a study of the 3-200 keV broad band spectra of
the bursting atoll source 4U 1728-34 (GX 354-0) along its hardness intensity
diagram. The analysis was done using the INTEGRAL public and Galactic Center
deep exposure data ranging from February 2003 to October 2004. The spectra are
well described by a thermal Comptonization model with an electron temperature
from 35 keV to 3 keV and Thomson optical depth, tau_T, from 0.5 to 5 in a slab
geometry. The source undergoes a transition from an intermediate/hard to a soft
state where the source luminosity increases from 2 to 12% of Eddington. We have
also detected 36 type I X-ray bursts two of which show photospheric radius
expansion. The energetic bursts with photospheric radius expansion occurred at
an inferred low mass accretion rate per unit area of \dot m ~ 1.7x10E3 g/cm2/s,
while the others at a higher one between 2.4x10E3 - 9.4x10E3 g/cm2/s. For
4U1728-34 the bursts' total fluence, and the bursts' peak flux are
anti-correlated with the mass accretion rate. The type I X-ray bursts involve
pure helium burning either during the hard state, or during the soft state of
the source.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, and 2 tables. Accepted for publication in A&
Spectral evolution of bright NS LMXBs with INTEGRAL: an application of the thermal plus bulk Comptonization model
The aim of this work is to investigate in a physical and quantitative way the
spectral evolution of bright Neutron Star Low-Mass X-ray Binaries (NS LMXBs),
with special regard to the transient hard X-ray tails. We analyzed INTEGRAL
data for five sources (GX 5-1, GX 349+2, GX 13+1, GX 3+1, GX 9+1) and built
broad-band X-ray spectra from JEM-X1 and IBIS/ISGRI data. For each source,
X-ray spectra from different states were fitted with the recently proposed
model compTB. The spectra have been fit with a two-compTB model. In all cases
the first compTB describes the dominant part of the spectrum that we interpret
as thermal Comptonization of soft seed photons (< 1 keV), likely from the
accretion disk, by a 3-5 keV corona. In all cases, this component does not
evolve much in terms of Comptonization efficiency, with the system converging
to thermal equilibrium for increasing accretion rate. The second compTB varies
more dramatically spanning from bulk plus thermal Comptonization of blackbody
seed photons to the blackbody emission alone. These seed photons (R < 12 km,
kT_s > 1 keV), likely from the neutron star and the innermost part of the
system, the Transition Layer, are Comptonized by matter in a converging flow.
The presence and nature of this second compTB component (be it a pure blackbody
or Comptonized) are related to the inner local accretion rate which can
influence the transient behaviour of the hard tail: high values of accretion
rates correspond to an efficient Bulk Comptonization process (bulk parameter
delta > 0) while even higher values of accretion rates suppress the
Comptonization, resulting in simple blackbody emission (delta=0).Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Overview of the cerebellar function in anticipatory postural adjustments and of the compensatory mechanisms developing in neural dysfunctions
This review aims to highlight the important contribution of the cerebellum in the Anticipatory Postural Adjustments (APAs). These are unconscious muscular activities, accompanying every voluntary movement, which are crucial for optimizing motor performance by contrasting any destabilization of the whole body and of each single segment. Moreover, APAs are deeply involved in initiating the displacement of the center of mass in whole-body reaching movements or when starting gait. Here we present literature that illustrates how the peculiar abilities of the cerebellum (i) to predict, and contrast in advance, the upcoming mechanical events; (ii) to adapt motor outputs to the mechanical context, and (iii) to control the temporal relationship between task-relevant events, are all exploited in the APA control. Moreover, recent papers are discussed which underline the key role of cerebellum ontogenesis in the correct maturation of APAs. Finally, on the basis of a survey of animal and human studies about cortical and subcortical compensatory processes that follow brain lesions, we propose a candidate neural network that could compensate for cerebellar deficits and suggest how to verify such a hypothesis
Spectral states evolution of 4U 1728-34 observed by INTEGRAL and RXTE: non-thermal component detection
We report results of a one-year monitoring of the low mass X-ray binary
(LMXB) source (atoll type) 4U 1728-34 with INTEGRAL and RXTE. Three time
intervals were covered by INTEGRAL, during which the source showed strong
spectral evolution. We studied the broad-band X-ray spectra in detail by
fitting several models in the different sections of the hardness-intensity
diagram. The soft states are characterised by prominent blackbody emission plus
a contribution from a Comptonized emission. The hard states are characterised
by the presence of an excess flux with respect to the Comptonization model
above 50 keV while the soft component is fainter. To obtain an acceptable fit
to the data this excess is modeled either with a power law with photon index
Gamma ~ 2 or a Comptonization (CompPS) spectrum implying the presence of hybrid
thermal and non-thermal electrons in a corona. This makes 4U 1728-34 one of the
few LMXBs of atoll type showing non-thermal emission at high energy. From our
analysis, it is also apparent that the presence of the hard tail is more
prominent as the overall spectrum becames harder. We discuss also alternative
models which can discribe these hard states.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (accepted 2011 April 20. Received
2011 April 20; in original form 2010 December 07); 9 pages, 7 figure
A Hard X-ray View on Scorpius X-1 with INTEGRAL: non-Thermal Emission ?
We present here simultaneous INTEGRAL/RXTE observations of Sco X-1, and in
particular a study of the hard X-ray emission of the source and its correlation
with the position in the Z-track of the X-ray color-color diagram. We find that
the hard X-ray (above about 30 keV) emission of Sco X-1 is dominated by a
power-law component with a photon index of ~3. The flux in the power-law
component slightly decreases when the source moves in the color-color diagram
in the sense of increasing inferred mass accretion rate from the horizontal
branch to the normal branch/flaring branch vertex. It becomes not significantly
detectable in the flaring branch, where its flux has decreased by about an
order of magnitude. These results present close analogies to the behavior of GX
17+2, one of so-called Sco-like Z sources. Finally, the hard power law in the
spectrum of Sco X-1 does not show any evidence of a high energy cutoff up to
100 - 200 keV, strongly suggesting a non-thermal origin of this component.Comment: 5 pages including 3 figures. Accepted for publication by ApJ Letter
On the nature of the first transient Z-source XTE J1701-462: its accretion disk structure, neutron star magnetic field strength, and hard tail
Using the data from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer satellite, we investigate
the spectral evolution along a "Z" track and a "v" track on the
hardness-intensity diagrams of the first transient Z source XTE J1701-462. The
spectral analyses suggest that the inner disk radius depends on the mass
accretion rate, in agreement with the model prediction, R_in \propto
((dM/dt)_disk)^{2/7}, for a radiation pressure dominated accretion disk
interacting with the magnetosphere of a neutron star (NS). The changes in the
disk mass accretion rate (dM/dt)_disk are responsible for the evolution of the
"Z" or "v" track. The radiation pressure thickens the disk considerably, and
also produces significant outflows. The NS surface magnetic field strength,
derived from the interaction between the magnetosphere and the radiation
pressure dominated accretion disk, is ~(1--3)X10^9 G, which is possibly between
normal atoll and Z sources. A significant hard tail is detected in the
horizontal branches and we discuss several possible origins of the hard tail
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