Bibcode
Wijnands, Rudy; Altamirano, Diego; Gladstone, Jeanette C.; Degenaar, Nathalie; Pooley, David; Linares, M.; Sivakoff, Gregory R.; Heinke, Craig O.; Bahramian, A.; Homan, Jeroen
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 780, Issue 2, article id. 127, 15 pp. (2014).
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1
2014
Journal
Citations
71
Refereed citations
63
Description
We report and study the outburst of a new transient X-ray binary (XRB)
in Terzan 5, the third detected in this globular cluster, Swift
J174805.3-244637 or Terzan 5 X-3. We find clear spectral hardening in
Swift/XRT data during the outburst rise to the hard state, thanks to our
early coverage (starting at LX ~ 4 × 1034
erg s–1) of the outburst. This hardening appears to be
due to the decline in relative strength of a soft thermal component from
the surface of the neutron star (NS) during the rise. We identify a Type
I X-ray burst in Swift/XRT data with a long (16 s) decay time,
indicative of hydrogen burning on the surface of the NS. We use
Swift/BAT, MAXI/GSC, Chandra/ACIS, and Swift/XRT data to study the
spectral changes during the outburst, identifying a clear hard-to-soft
state transition. We use a Chandra/ACIS observation during outburst to
identify the transient's position. Seven archival Chandra/ACIS
observations show evidence for variations in Terzan 5 X-3's nonthermal
component but not the thermal component during quiescence. The inferred
long-term time-averaged mass accretion rate, from the quiescent thermal
luminosity, suggests that if this outburst is typical and only slow
cooling processes are active in the NS core, such outbursts should recur
every ~10 yr.
Related projects
Black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs and their local environment
Accreting black-holes and neutron stars in X-ray binaries provide an ideal laboratory for exploring the physics of compact objects, yielding not only confirmation of the existence of stellar mass black holes via dynamical mass measurements, but also the best opportunity for probing high-gravity environments and the physics of accretion; the most
Montserrat
Armas Padilla