A bright thermonuclear X-ray burst simultaneously observed with Chandra and RXTE
The prototypical accretion-powered millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4−3658 was observed simultaneously with Chandra-LETGS and RXTE-PCA near the peak of a transient outburst in November 2011. A single thermonuclear (type-I) burst was detected, the brightest yet observed by Chandra from any source, and th...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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EDP Sciences
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88581 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9194-2084 |
| _version_ | 1811080651563073536 |
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| author | in't Zand, J. J. M. Galloway, Duncan K. Ballantyne, D. R. Jonker, P. G. Paerels, F. B. S. Palmer, D. M. Patruno, A. Weinberg, Nevin N. Marshall, Herman |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics in't Zand, J. J. M. Galloway, Duncan K. Ballantyne, D. R. Jonker, P. G. Paerels, F. B. S. Palmer, D. M. Patruno, A. Weinberg, Nevin N. Marshall, Herman |
| author_sort | in't Zand, J. J. M. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The prototypical accretion-powered millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4−3658 was observed simultaneously with Chandra-LETGS and RXTE-PCA near the peak of a transient outburst in November 2011. A single thermonuclear (type-I) burst was detected, the brightest yet observed by Chandra from any source, and the second-brightest observed by RXTE. We found no evidence for discrete spectral features during the burst; absorption edges have been predicted to be present in such bursts, but may require a greater degree of photospheric expansion than the rather moderate expansion seen in this event (a factor of a few). These observations provide a unique data set to study an X-ray burst over a broad bandpass and at high spectral resolution (λ/Δλ = 200–400). We find a significant excess of photons at high and low energies compared to the standard black body spectrum. This excess is well described by a 20-fold increase of the persistent flux during the burst. We speculate that this results from burst photons being scattered in the accretion disk corona. These and other recent observations of X-ray bursts point out the need for detailed theoretical modeling of the radiative and hydrodynamical interaction between thermonuclear X-ray bursts and accretion disks. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:34:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/88581 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:34:22Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | EDP Sciences |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/885812022-10-01T04:30:46Z A bright thermonuclear X-ray burst simultaneously observed with Chandra and RXTE in't Zand, J. J. M. Galloway, Duncan K. Ballantyne, D. R. Jonker, P. G. Paerels, F. B. S. Palmer, D. M. Patruno, A. Weinberg, Nevin N. Marshall, Herman Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Marshall, Herman Lee Weinberg, Nevin N. The prototypical accretion-powered millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4−3658 was observed simultaneously with Chandra-LETGS and RXTE-PCA near the peak of a transient outburst in November 2011. A single thermonuclear (type-I) burst was detected, the brightest yet observed by Chandra from any source, and the second-brightest observed by RXTE. We found no evidence for discrete spectral features during the burst; absorption edges have been predicted to be present in such bursts, but may require a greater degree of photospheric expansion than the rather moderate expansion seen in this event (a factor of a few). These observations provide a unique data set to study an X-ray burst over a broad bandpass and at high spectral resolution (λ/Δλ = 200–400). We find a significant excess of photons at high and low energies compared to the standard black body spectrum. This excess is well described by a 20-fold increase of the persistent flux during the burst. We speculate that this results from burst photons being scattered in the accretion disk corona. These and other recent observations of X-ray bursts point out the need for detailed theoretical modeling of the radiative and hydrodynamical interaction between thermonuclear X-ray bursts and accretion disks. 2014-08-07T15:46:17Z 2014-08-07T15:46:17Z 2013-05 2013-01 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0004-6361 1432-0746 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88581 in ’t Zand, J. J. M., D. K. Galloway, H. L. Marshall, D. R. Ballantyne, P. G. Jonker, F. B. S. Paerels, D. M. Palmer, A. Patruno, and N. N. Weinberg. “A bright thermonuclear X-ray burst simultaneously observed with Chandra and RXTE.” Astronomy & Astrophysics 553 (May 14, 2013): A83. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9194-2084 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201321056 Astronomy & Astrophysics Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf EDP Sciences arXiv |
| spellingShingle | in't Zand, J. J. M. Galloway, Duncan K. Ballantyne, D. R. Jonker, P. G. Paerels, F. B. S. Palmer, D. M. Patruno, A. Weinberg, Nevin N. Marshall, Herman A bright thermonuclear X-ray burst simultaneously observed with Chandra and RXTE |
| title | A bright thermonuclear X-ray burst simultaneously observed with Chandra and RXTE |
| title_full | A bright thermonuclear X-ray burst simultaneously observed with Chandra and RXTE |
| title_fullStr | A bright thermonuclear X-ray burst simultaneously observed with Chandra and RXTE |
| title_full_unstemmed | A bright thermonuclear X-ray burst simultaneously observed with Chandra and RXTE |
| title_short | A bright thermonuclear X-ray burst simultaneously observed with Chandra and RXTE |
| title_sort | bright thermonuclear x ray burst simultaneously observed with chandra and rxte |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88581 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9194-2084 |
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