Broad iron line in the fast spinning neutron-star system 4U 1636-53

Sanna, Andrea; Hiemstra, Beike; Méndez, Mariano; Altamirano, Diego; Belloni, Tomaso; Linares, M.
Bibliographical reference

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 432, Issue 2, p.1144-1161

Advertised on:
6
2013
Number of authors
6
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
39
Refereed citations
35
Description
We analysed the X-ray spectra of six observations, simultaneously taken with XMM-Newton and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), of the neutron-star low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1636-53. The observations cover several states of the source, and therefore a large range of inferred mass accretion rate. These six observations show a broad emission line in the spectrum at around 6.5 keV, likely due to iron. We fitted this line with a set of phenomenological models of a relativistically broadened line, plus a model that accounts for relativistically smeared and ionized reflection from the accretion disc. The latter model includes the incident emission from both the neutron-star surface or boundary layer and the corona that is responsible for the high-energy emission in these systems. From the fits with the reflection model we found that in four out of the six observations the main contribution to the reflected spectrum comes from the neutron-star surface or boundary layer, whereas in the other two observations the main contribution to the reflected spectrum comes from the corona. We found that the relative contribution of these two components is not correlated to the state of the source. From the phenomenological models, we found that the iron line profile is better described by a symmetric, albeit broad, profile. The width of the line cannot be explained only by Compton broadening, and we therefore explored the case of relativistic broadening. We further found that the direct emission from the disc, boundary layer and corona generally evolved in a manner consistent with the standard accretion disc model, with the disc and boundary layer becoming hotter and the disc moving inwards as the source changed from the hard to the soft state. The iron line, however, did not appear to follow the same trend.
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