Wednesday, February 1, 2012

1201.6491 (Ryuichi Usui et al.)

Outburst of LS V+44 17 Observed by MAXI and RXTE, and Discovery of a Dip Structure in the Pulse Profile    [PDF]

Ryuichi Usui, Mikio Morii, Nobuyuki Kawai, Takayuki Yamamoto, Tatehiro Mihara, Mutsumi Sugizaki, Masaru Matsuoka, Kazuo Hiroi, Masaki Ishikawa, Naoki Isobe, Masashi Kimura, Hiroki Kitayama, Mitsuhiro Kohama, Takanori Matsumura, Satoshi Nakahira, Motoki Nakajima, Hitoshi Negoro, Motoko Serino, Megumi Shidatsu, Tetsuya Sootome, Kousuke Sugimori, Fumitoshi Suwa, Takahiro Toizumi, Hiroshi Tomida, Yoko Tsuboi, Hiroshi Tsunemi, Yoshihiro Ueda, Shiro Ueno, Kazutaka Yamaoka, Kyohei Yamazaki, Atsumasa Yoshida
We report on the first observation of an X-ray outburst of a Be/X-ray binary pulsar LS V +44 17/RX J0440.9+4431, and the discovery of an absorption dip structure in the pulse profile. An outburst of this source was discovered by MAXI GSC in 2010 April. It was the first detection of the transient activity of LS V +44 17 since the source was identified as a Be/X-ray binary in 1997. From the data of the follow-up RXTE observation near the peak of the outburst, we found a narrow dip structure in its pulse profile which was clearer in the lower energy bands. The pulse-phase-averaged energy spectra in the 3$-$100 keV band can be fitted with a continuum model containing a power-law function with an exponential cutoff and a blackbody component, which are modified at low energy by an absorption component. A weak iron K$\alpha$ emission line is also detected in the spectra. From the pulse-phase-resolved spectroscopy we found that the absorption column density at the dip phase was much higher than those in the other phases. The dip was not seen in the subsequent RXTE observations at lower flux levels. These results suggest that the dip in the pulse profile originates from the eclipse of the radiation from the neutron star by the accretion column.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.6491

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