4,556 research outputs found
How rapidly do neutron stars spin at birth? Constaints from archival X-ray observations of extragalactic supernovae
Traditionally, studies aimed at inferring the distribution of birth periods of neutron stars are based on radio surveys. Here we propose an independent method to constrain the pulsar spin periods at birth based on their X-ray luminosities. In particular, the observed luminosity distribution of supernovae (SNe) poses a constraint on the initial rotational energy of the embedded pulsars, via the correlation found for radio pulsars, and under the assumption that this relation continues to hold beyond the observed range. We have extracted X-ray luminosities (or limits) for a large sample of historical SNe observed with Chandra, XMM and Swift, which have been firmly classified as core-collapse SNe. We have then compared these observational limits with the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the pulsar X-ray luminosity distribution for a range of values of the birth parameters. We find that a pulsar population dominated by millisecond periods at birth is ruled out by the data
On the Optical -- X-ray correlation from outburst to quiescence in Low Mass X-ray Binaries: the representative cases of V404 Cyg and Cen X-4
Low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) show evidence of a global correlation of
debated origin between X-ray and optical luminosity. We study for the first
time this correlation in two transient LMXBs, the black hole V404 Cyg and the
neutron star Cen X-4, over 6 orders of magnitude in X-ray luminosity, from
outburst to quiescence. After subtracting the contribution from the companion
star, the Cen X-4 data can be described by a single power law correlation of
the form , consistent with disk reprocessing. We
find a similar correlation slope for V404 Cyg in quiescence (0.46) and a
steeper one (0.56) in the outburst hard state of 1989. However, V404 Cyg is
about times optically brighter, at a given keV X-ray
luminosity, compared to Cen X-4. This ratio is a factor of 10 smaller in
quiescence, where the normalization of the V404 Cyg correlation also changes.
We show that once the bolometric X-ray emission is considered and the known
main differences between V404 Cyg and Cen X-4 are taken into account (a larger
compact object mass, accretion disk size, and the presence of a strong jet
contribution in the hard state for the black hole system) the two systems lie
on the same correlation. In V404 Cyg, the jet dominates spectrally at
optical-infrared frequencies during the hard state, but makes a negligible
contribution in quiescence, which may account for the change in its correlation
slope and normalization. These results provide a benchmark to compare with data
from the 2015 outburst of V404 Cyg and, potentially, other transient LMXBs as
well.Comment: Accepted on ApJ, 12 pages, 4 figures, 4 table
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&
Future X-ray timing missions
Thanks to the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), it is now widely recognized
that fast X-ray timing can be used to probe strong gravity fields around
collapsed objects and constrain the equation of state of dense matter in
neutron stars. We first discuss some of the outstanding issues which could be
solved with an X-ray timing mission building on the great successes of RXTE and
providing an order of magnitude better sensitivity. Then we briefly describe
the 'Experiment for X-ray timing and Relativistic Astrophysics' (EXTRA)
recently proposed to the European Space Agency as a follow-up to RXTE and the
related US mission 'Relativistic Astrophysics Explorer' (RAE).Comment: To be published in `Proceedings of the Third Microquasar Workshop:
Granada Workshop on galactic relativistic jet sources', Eds A. J.
Castro-Tirado, J. Greiner and J. M. Paredes, Astrophysics and Space Science,
in press. More about EXTRA can be found at:
http://www.cesr.fr/~barret/extra.htm
BeppoSAX observations of the black hole candidates LMC X-1 and LMC X-3
We describe BeppoSAX observations of the black hole candidates LMC X--1 and
LMC X--3 performed in Oct. 1997. Both sources can be modelled by a multicolor
accretion disk spectrum, with temperature keV. However, there is some
evidence that a thin emitting component coexists with the thick disk at these
temperatures. In the direction of LMC X--1, we detected a significant emission
above 10 keV, which we suspect originates from the nearby source PSR 0540-69.
For LMC X--1, we estimate an absorbing column density of cm, which is almost ten times larger than that found for LMC
X--3. In both sources, we find no indication of emission or absorption features
whatsoever.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for pubblication in the Proc. of 32nd
Cospar scientific assembly, Nagoya, 13-15 July 199
TurbuStat: Turbulence Statistics in Python
We present TurbuStat (v1.0): a Python package for computing turbulence
statistics in spectral-line data cubes. TurbuStat includes implementations of
fourteen methods for recovering turbulent properties from observational data.
Additional features of the software include: distance metrics for comparing two
data sets; a segmented linear model for fitting lines with a break-point; a
two-dimensional elliptical power-law model; multi-core fast-fourier-transform
support; a suite for producing simulated observations of fractional Brownian
Motion fields, including two-dimensional images and optically-thin HI data
cubes; and functions for creating realistic world coordinate system information
for synthetic observations. This paper summarizes the TurbuStat package and
provides representative examples using several different methods. TurbuStat is
an open-source package and we welcome community feedback and contributions.Comment: Accepted in AJ. 21 pages, 8 figure
Detailed X-ray spectroscopy of the magnetar 1E 2259+586
Magnetic field geometry is expected to play a fundamental role in magnetar
activity. The discovery of a phase-variable absorption feature in the X-ray
spectrum of SGR 0418+5729, interpreted as cyclotron resonant scattering,
suggests the presence of very strong non-dipolar components in the magnetic
fields of magnetars. We performed a deep XMM-Newton observation of pulsar 1E
2259+586, to search for spectral features due to intense local magnetic fields.
In the phase-averaged X-ray spectrum, we found evidence for a broad absorption
feature at very low energy (0.7 keV). If the feature is intrinsic to the
source, it might be due to resonant scattering/absorption by protons close to
star surface. The line energy implies a magnetic field of ~ 10^14 G, roughly
similar to the spin-down measure, ~ 6x10^13 G. Examination of the X-ray
phase-energy diagram shows evidence for a further absorption feature, the
energy of which strongly depends on the rotational phase (E >~ 1 keV ). Unlike
similar features detected in other magnetar sources, notably SGR 0418+5729, it
is too shallow and limited to a small phase interval to be modeled with a
narrow phase-variable cyclotron absorption line. A detailed phase-resolved
spectral analysis reveals significant phase-dependent variability in the
continuum, especially above 2 keV. We conclude that all the variability with
phase in 1E 2259+586 can be attributed to changes in the continuum properties
which appear consistent with the predictions of the Resonant Compton Scattering
model
Proton Cyclotron Features in Thermal Spectra of Ultra-magnetized Neutron Stars
A great deal of interest has been recently raised in connection with the
possibility that soft -ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars
(AXPs) contain {\em magnetars}, young neutron stars endowed with magnetic
fields G. In this paper we calculate thermal spectra from
ultra-magnetized neutron stars for values of the luminosity and magnetic field
believed to be relevant to SGRs and AXPs. Emergent spectra are found to be very
close to a blackbody at the star effective temperature and exhibit a
distinctive absorption feature at the proton cyclotron energy keV. The proton cyclotron features (PCFs) are
conspicuous (equivalent width of up to many hundreds eV) and relatively broad
(). The detection of the PCFs is well within the
capabilities of present X-ray spectrometers, like the HETGS and METGS on board
Chandra. Their observation might provide decisive evidence in favor of the
existence of magnetars.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, minor changes included, typos corrected. Accepted
for publication in Ap
Young Crab-like pulsars and luminous X-ray sources in starbursts and optically dull galaxies
Recent Chandra observations of nearby galaxies have revealed a number of
ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) with super-Eddington luminosities, away from
the central regions of non-active galaxies. The nature of these sources is
still debated. We argue that a fraction of them could be young, Crab-like
pulsars, the X-ray luminosity of which is powered by rotation. We use the
pulsar birth parameters estimated from radio pulsar data to compute the
steady-state pulsar X-ray luminosity distribution as a function of the star
formation rate (SFR) in the galaxy. We find that ~10% of optically dull
galaxies are expected to have a source with L_x >~ 10^{39} erg/s, while
starbursts galaxies should each have several of these sources. We estimate that
the X-ray luminosity of a few percents of galaxies is dominated by a single
bright pulsar with L_x >~10^{39} erg/s, roughly independently of its SFR. We
discuss observational diagnostics that can help distinguish the young pulsar
population in ULXs.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, accepted to Ap
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