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At least 1,027 records · Page 57

Neutron Stars and Pulsar: Three Years of Chandra Operations

We present a brief review of Chandra Observations of neutron stars, with a concentration on neutron stars in supernova remnants. Three years of Chandra results clearly demonstrate how critical the angular resolution has been in order to separate the neutron star emission from the surrounding nebulosity.

Weisskopf, M. C.↗

Accreting X-ray Pulsars

This presentation describes the behavior of matter in environments with extreme magnetic and gravitational fields, explains the instability/stability of accretion disks in certain systems, and discusses how emergent radiation affects accretion flow. Magnetic field measurements are obtained by measuring the lowest cyclotron absorption line energy, observing the cutoff of accretion due to centrifugal inhibition and measuring the spin-up rate at high luminosity.

Wilson-Hodge, Colleen A.↗

Orbital Parameters and Spectroscopy of the Transient X-Ray Pulsar 4U 0115+63

We report on an outburst of the high mass X-ray binary 4U 0115+63 with a pulse period of 3.6s in spring 2008 as observed with INTEGRAL and RXTE. By analyzing the lightcurves we derive an updated orbital- and pulse period ephemeris of the neutron star. We also study the pulse profile variations as a function of time and energy as well as the variability of the spectral parameters. We find clear evidence for at least three cyclotron line features. In agreement with previous observations of 4U 0115+63, we detect an anti-correlation between the luminosity and the fundamental cyclotron line energy.

Mueller, Sebastian↗

Burst and Persistent Emission Properties during the Recent Active Episode of the Anomalous X-Ray Pulsar 1E 1841-045

SWift/BAT detected the first burst from 1E 1841-045 in May 2010 with intermittent burst activity recorded through at least July 2011. Here we present Swift and Fermi/GBM observations of this burst activity and search for correlated changes to the persistent X-ray emission of the source. The T90 durations of the bursts range between 18 - 140 ms, comparable to other magnetar burst durations, while the energy released in each burst ranges between (0.8-25) x 1038 erg, which is in the low side of SGR bursts. We find that the bursting activity did not have a significant effect on the persistent flux level of the source. We argue that the mechanism leading to this sporadic burst activity in IE 1841-045 might not involve large scale restructuring (either crustal or magnetospheric) as seen in other magnetar sources.

Lin, Lin↗

The Reawakening of the Sleeping X-ray Pulsar XTE J1946+274

We report on a series of outbursts of the high mass X-ray binary XTE 11946+274 in 2010/2011 as observed with INTEGRAL, RXTE, and Swift. We discuss possible mechanisms resulting in the extraordinary outburst behavior of this source. The X-ray spectra can be described by standard phenomenological models, enhanced by an absorption feature of unknown origin at about 10 keV and a narrow iron K alpha fluorescence line at 6.4keV, which are variable in flux and pulse phase. We find possible evidence for the presence of a cyclotron resonance scattering feature at about 25 keV at the 93% level. The presence of a strong cyclotron line at 35 keV seen in data from the source's 1998 outburst and confirmed by a reanalysis of these data can be excluded. This result indicates that the cyclotron line feature in XTE 11946+274 is variable between individual outbursts.

Mueller, Sebastian↗

A Possible Phase-Dependent Absorption Feature in the Transient X-Ray Pulsar SAX J2103.5+4545

We present an X-ray spectral and timing analysis of two Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) observations of the transient Be X-ray binary SAX J2103.5+4545 during its 2016 April outburst, which was characterized by the highest flux since NuSTAR's launch. These observations provide detailed hard X-ray spectra of this source during its bright precursor flare and subsequent fainter regular outburst for the first time. In this work, we model the phase-averaged spectra for these observations with a negative and positive power law with an exponential cutoff (NPEX - Negative and Positive power-laws EXponential) model and compare the pulse profiles at different flux states. We found that the broadband pulse profile changes from a three-peaked pulse in the first observation to a two-peaked pulse in the second observation, and that each of the pulse peaks has some energy dependence. We also perform pulse-phase spectroscopy and fit phase-resolved spectra with NPEX to evaluate how spectral parameters change with pulse phase. We find that while the continuum parameters are mostly constant with pulse phase, a weak absorption feature at approximately 12 kiloelectronvolts which might, with further study, be classified as a cyclotron line, does show strong pulse-phase dependence.

Brumback, M.C.↗