Simultaneous radio and X-ray observations of Galactic Centre low mass X-ray binaries

We have performed simultaneous X-ray and radio observations of thirteen Galactic centre low-mass X-ray binaries in 1998 April using the Wide-Field Cameras onboard BeppoSAX and the Australia Telescope Compact Array, the latter simultaneously at 4.8 and 8.64 GHz. We detect two Z sources, GX 17+2 and GX 5-1, and the unusual `hybrid' source GX 13+1. Upper limits, which are significantly deeper than previous non-detections, are placed on the radio emission from two more Z sources and seven atoll sources. Hardness-Intensity diagrams constructed from the Wide-Field Camera data reveal GX 17+2 and GX 5-1 to have been on the lower part of the horizontal branch and/or the upper part of the normal branch, at the time of the observations, and the two non-detected Z sources, GX 340+0 and GX 349+2, to have been on the lower part of the normal branch. This is consistent with the previous empirically-determined relation between radio and X-ray emission from Z sources, in which radio emission is strongest on the Horizontal branch and weakest on the Flaring branch. For the first time we have information on the X-ray state of atoll sources, which are clearly radio-quiet relative to the Z sources, during periods of observed radio upper limits. We place limits on the linear polarisation from the three detected sources, and use accurate radio astrometry of GX 17+2 to confirm that it is probably not associated with the optical star NP Ser. Additionally we place strong upper limits on the radio emission from the X-ray binary 2S 0921-630, disagreeing with suggestions that it is a Z-source viewed edge-on.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Observation of electron transfer mediated decay in aqueous solution

Photoionization is at the heart of X ray photoelectron spectroscopy XPS , which gives access to important information on a sample s local chemical environment. Local and non local electronic decay after photoionization in which the refilling of core holes results in electron emission from either the initially ionized species or a neighbour, respectively have been well studied. However, electron transfer mediated decay ETMD , which involves the refilling of a core hole by an electron from a neighbouring species, has not yet been observed in condensed phase. Here we report the experimental observation of ETMD in an aqueous LiCl solution by detecting characteristic secondary low energy electrons using liquid microjet soft XPS. Experimental results are interpreted using molecular dynamics and high level ab initio calculations. We show that both solvent molecules and counterions participate in the ETMD processes, and different ion associations have distinctive spectral fingerprints. Furthermore, ETMD spectra are sensitive to coordination numbers, ion solvent distances and solvent arrangemen