0000000000190748
AUTHOR
T. M. Belloni
The discovery of the 401 Hz accreting millisecond pulsar IGR J17498-2921 in a 3.8 h orbit
We report on the detection of a 400.99018734(1) Hz coherent signal in the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer light curves of the recently discovered X-ray transient, IGR J17498-2921. By analysing the frequency modulation caused by the orbital motion observed between August 13 and September 8, 2011, we derive an orbital solution for the binary system with a period of 3.8432275(3) hr. The measured mass function, f(M_2, M_1, i)=0.00203807(8) Msun, allows to set a lower limit of 0.17 Msun on the mass of the companion star, while an upper limit of 0.48 Msun is set by imposing that the companion star does not overfill its Roche lobe. We observe a marginally significant evolution of the signal frequency …
X-ray bursts and burst oscillations from the slowly spinning X-ray pulsar IGR J17480−2446 (Terzan 5)
The newly discovered 11-Hz accreting pulsar, IGR J17480−2446, located in the globular cluster Terzan 5, has shown several bursts with a recurrence time as short as a few minutes. The source shows the shortest recurrence time ever observed from a neutron star. Here we present a study of the morphological, spectral and temporal properties of 107 bursts observed by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. The recurrence time and the fluence of the bursts clearly anticorrelate with the increase in the persistent X-ray flux. The ratio between the energy generated by the accretion of mass and that liberated during bursts indicates that helium is ignited in a hydrogen-rich layer. Therefore, we conclude th…
Testing reflection features in 4U 1705-44 with XMM-Newton, BeppoSAX, and RXTE in the hard and soft states
We use data of the bright atoll source 4U 1705-44 taken with XMM-Newton, BeppoSAX and RXTE both in the hard and in the soft state to perform a self-consistent study of the reflection component in this source. Although the data from these X-ray observatories are not simultaneous, the spectral decomposition is shown to be consistent among the different observations, when the source flux is similar. We therefore select observations performed at similar flux levels in the hard and soft state in order to study the spectral shape in these two states in a broad band (0.1-200 keV) energy range, with good energy resolution, and using self-consistent reflection models. These reflection models provide…
A newly discovered accreting pulsar in Terzan 5
The 11 Hz accreting pulsar, IGR J17480-2446, was recently discovered in the globular cluster Terzan 5. The analisys of the Doppler shifts induced by the orbital motion reveals how the neutron star belongs to a ∼ 21.3 hr binary system with a companion star of 0.4-1.5 M. The X-ray pulsar spins up while accreting at an average rate of 1.48(2)×10−12 Hz s−1, in agreement with the accretion of disc matter angular momentum given the observed luminosity. From the presence of pulsations at different accretion rates we constrain the magnetic field to lie within ∼2×108 and ∼2×1010 G. From this estimate, the value of the spin period and of the observed spin-up rate, we associate this source with the st…
The spin and orbit of the newly discovered pulsar IGR J17480-2446
We present an analysis of the spin and orbital properties of the newly discovered accreting pulsar IGR J17480-2446, located in the globular cluster Terzan 5. Considering the pulses detected by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer at a period of 90.539645(2) ms, we derive a solution for the 21.27454(8) hr binary system. The binary mass function is estimated to be 0.021275(5) Msun, indicating a companion star with a mass larger than 0.4 Msun. The X-ray pulsar spins up while accreting at a rate of between 1.2 and 1.7E-12 Hz/s, in agreement with the accretion of disc matter angular momentum given the observed luminosity. We also report the detection of pulsations at the spin period of the source dur…
The complex behaviour of the microquasar GRS 1915+105 in theρclass observed withBeppoSAX
BeppoSAX observed GRS 1915+105 on October 2000 with a long pointing lasting about ten days. During this observation, the source was mainly in the rho class characterized by bursts with a recurrence time of between 40 and 100 s. We identify five segments in the burst structure and accumulate the average spectra of these segments during each satellite orbit. We present a detailed spectral analysis aimed at determining variations that occur during the burst and understanding the physical process that produces them. We compare MECS, HPGSPC, and PDS spectra with several models. Under the assumption that a single model is able to fit all spectra, we find that the combination of a multi-temperatur…
The long outburst of the black hole transient GRS 1716-249 observed in the X-ray and radio band
We present the spectral and timing analysis of X-ray observations performed on the Galactic black hole transient GRS 1716-249 during the 2016-2017 outburst. The source was almost continuously observed with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory from December 2016 until October 2017. The X-ray hardness ratio and timing evolution indicate that the source approached the soft state three times during the outburst, even though it never reached the canonical soft spectral state. Thus, GRS 1716-249 increases the number of black hole transients showing outbursts with "failed" state transition. During the softening events, XRT and BAT broadband spectral modeling, performed with thermal Comptonization pl…