Timing and Spectral Properties of the Accreting Millisecond Pulsar SWIFT J1756.9-2508

Linares, Manuel; Wijnands, Rudy; van der Klis, Michiel; Krimm, Hans; Markwardt, Craig B.; Chakrabarty, Deepto
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 677, Issue 1, pp. 515-519.

Advertised on:
4
2008
Number of authors
6
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
15
Refereed citations
14
Description
SWIFT J1756.9-2508 is one of the few accreting millisecond pulsars (AMPs) discovered to date. We report here the results of our analysis of its aperiodic X-ray variability, as measured with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer during the 2007 outburst of the source. We detect strong (~35%) flat-topped broadband noise throughout the outburst with low characteristic frequencies (~0.1 Hz). This makes SWIFT J1756.9-2508 similar to the rest of AMPs and to other low-luminosity accreting neutron stars when they are in their hard states, and enables us to classify this AMP as an atoll source in the extreme island state. We also find a hard tail in its energy spectrum extending up to 100 keV, fully consistent with such source and state classification.