Spectral Softening Between Outburst and Quiescence In The Neutron Star Low-Mass X-Ray Binary SAX J1750.8-2900

Allen, J. L.; Linares, M.; Homan, J.; Chakrabarty, D.
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 801, Issue 1, article id. 10, 13 pp. (2015).

Advertised on:
3
2015
Number of authors
4
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
17
Refereed citations
15
Description
Tracking the spectral evolution of transiently accreting neutron stars between outburst and quiescence probes relatively poorly understood accretion regimes. Such studies are challenging because they require frequent monitoring of sources with luminosities below the thresholds of current all-sky X-ray monitors. We present the analysis of over 30 observations of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary SAX J1750.8-2900 taken across four years with the X-ray telescope aboard Swift. We find spectral softening with decreasing luminosity both on long (∼1 yr) and short (∼days to week) timescales. As the luminosity decreases from 4 × 1036 erg s‑1 to ∼ 1× {{10}35} erg s‑1 (0.5–10 keV), the power law photon index increases from 1.4 to 2.9. Although not statistically required, our spectral fits allow an additional soft component that displays a decreasing temperature as the luminosity decreases from 4 × 1036 to 6 × 1034 erg s‑1. Spectral softening exhibited by SAX J1750.8-2900 is consistent both with accretion emission whose spectral shape steepens with decreasing luminosity and also with being dominated by a changing soft component, possibly associated with accretion onto the neutron star surface, as the luminosity declines.
Related projects
Black hole in outburst
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