INTEGRAL: science highlights and future prospects

ESA's hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray observatory INTEGRAL is covering the 3 keV to 10 MeV energy band, with excellent sensitivity during long and uninterrupted observations of a large field of view (~100 square degrees), with ms time resolution and keV energy resolution. It links the energy band of pointed soft X-ray missions such as XMM-Newton with that of high-energy gamma-ray space missions such as Fermi and ground based TeV observatories. Key results obtained so far include the first sky map in the light of the 511 keV annihilation emission, the discovery of a new class of high mass X-ray binaries and detection of polarization in cosmic high energy radiation. For the foreseeable future, INTEGRAL will remain the only observatory allowing the study of nucleosynthesis in our Galaxy, including the long overdue next nearby supernova, through high-resolution gamma-ray line spectroscopy. Science results to date and expected for the coming mission years span a wide range of high-energy astrophysics, including studies of the distribution of positrons in the Galaxy; reflection of gamma-rays off clouds in the interstellar medium near the Galactic Centre; studies of black holes and neutron stars particularly in high- mass systems; gamma-ray polarization measurements for X-ray binaries and gamma-ray bursts, and sensitive detection capabilities for obscured active galaxies with more than 1000 expected to be found until 2014. This paper summarizes scientific highlights obtained since INTEGRAL's launch in 2002, and outlines prospects for the INTEGRAL mission.Comment: 39 pages, accepted, 24 October 2011, Space Science Review

Soft Gamma-Ray Spectral and Time evolution of the GRB 221009A: prompt and afterglow emission with INTEGRAL/IBIS-PICsIT

The gamma-ray burst (GRB) 221009A, with its extreme brightness, has provided the opportunity to explore GRB prompt and afterglow emission behavior on short time scales with high statistics. In conjunction with detection up to very high-energy gamma-rays, studies of this event shed light on the emission processes at work in the initial phases of GRBs emission. Using INTEGRAL/IBIS's soft gamma-ray detector, PICsIT (200-2600 keV), we studied the temporal and spectral evolution during the prompt phase and the early afterglow period. We found a "flux-tracking" behavior with the source spectrum "softer" when brighter. However the relationship between the spectral index and the flux changes during the burst. The PICsIT light curve shows afterglow emission begins to dominate at ~ T0 + 630s and decays with a slope of 1.6 +/- 0.2, consistent with the slopes reported at soft X-rays.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, A&A Accepte

Swift/XRT- NuSTAR spectra of type 1 AGN]{Swift/XRT- NuSTAR spectra of type 1 AGN: confirming INTEGRAL results on the high energy cut-off

We present the 0.5 - 78 keV spectral analysis of 18 broad line AGN belonging to the INTEGRAL complete sample. Using simultaneous Swift-XRT and NuSTAR observations and employing a simple phenomenological model to fit the data, we measure with a good constraint the high energy cut-off in 13 sources, while we place lower limits on 5 objects. We found a mean high-energy cut-off of 111 keV (standard deviation = 45 keV) for the whole sample, in perfect agreement with what found in our previous work using non simultaneous observations and with what recently published using NuSTAR data. This work suggests that simultaneity of the observations in the soft and hard X-ray band is important but not always essential, especially if flux and spectral variability are properly accounted for. A lesser agreement is found when we compare our cut-off measurements with the ones obtained by Ricci et al. (2017) using Swift-BAT high energy data, finding that their values are systematically higher than ours. We have investigated whether a linear correlation exists between photon index and the cut-off and found a weak one, probably to be ascribed to the non perfect modelling of the soft part of the spectra, due to the poor statistical quality of the 2-10 keV X-ray data. No correlation is also found between the Eddington ratio and the cut-off, suggesting that only using high statistical quality broad-band spectra is it possible to verify the theoretical predictions and study the physical characteristics of the hot corona and its geometry.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

X-ray spectral evolution of V404 Cygni in the initial phase of the 2015 outburst

The black hole binary GS 2023+338 exhibited an unprecedently bright outburst on June 2015. Since June 17th, the high energy instruments on board INTEGRAL detected an extremely variable emission during both bright and low luminosity phases, with dramatic variations of the hardness ratio on time scales of ~seconds. The analysis of the IBIS and SPI data reveals the presence of hard spectra in the brightest phases, compatible with thermal Comptonization with temperature kTe ~ 40 keV. The seed photons temperature is best fit by kT0 ~ 7 keV, that is too high to be compatible with blackbody emission from the disk. This result is consistent with the seed photons being provided by a different source, that we hypothesize to be a synchrotron driven component in the jet. During the brightest phase of flares, the hardness shows a complex pattern of correlation with flux, with a maximum energy released in the range 40-100 keV. The hard X-ray variability for E > 50 keV is correlated with flux variations in the softer band, showing that the overall source variability cannot originate entirely from absorption, but at least part of it is due to the central accreting source.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter

IGR J14488-4008: an X-ray peculiar giant radio galaxy discovered by INTEGRAL

In this paper we report the discovery and detailed radio/X-ray analysis of a peculiar giant radio galaxy (GRG) detected by INTEGRAL, IGR J14488-4008. The source has been recently classified as a Seyfert 1.2 galaxy at redshift 0.123; the radio data denote the source to be a type II Fanaroff-Riley radio galaxy, with a linear projected size exceeding 1.5 Mpc, clearly assigning IGR J14488-4008 to the class of GRG. In the X-rays, the source shows a remarkable spectrum, characterised by absorption by ionised elements, a characteristic so far found in only other four broad line radio galaxies.Comment: 7 pages, 3 tables, 5 figures. Accepted for publication on MNRA

Disc-Jet coupling in the LMXB 4U1636-53 from INTEGRAL

We report on the spectral analysis results of the neutron star, atoll type, low mass X-ray Binary 4U1636-53 observed by INTEGRAL and BeppoSAX satellites. Spectral behavior in three different epochs corresponding to three different spectral states has been deeply investigated. Two data set spectra show a continuum well described by one or two soft blackbody plus a Comptonized components with changes in the Comptonizing electrons and black body temperature and the accretion rates, which are typical of the spectral transitions from high to low state. In one occasion INTEGRAL spectrum shows, for first time in this source, a hard tail dominating the emission above 30 keV. The total spectrum is fitted as the sum of a Comptonized component similar to soft state and a power-law component (Gamma=2.76), indicating the presence of a non thermal electron distribution of velocities. In this case, a comparison with hard tails detected in soft states from neutron stars systems and some black hole binaries suggests that a similar mechanism could originate these components in both cases.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. accepted Ap