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Gravitationally Redshifted Absorption Lines in the X-Ray Burst Spectra

Gravitationally Redshifted Absorption Lines in the X-Ray Burst Spectra. NTHU 2008.01.03 Lu, Ting-Ni. X-ray burst. a neutron star and an accreting companion Type I X-ray burst has a sharp rise followed by a slow and gradual decline of the luminosity profile

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Gravitationally Redshifted Absorption Lines in the X-Ray Burst Spectra

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  1. Gravitationally Redshifted Absorption Lines in the X-Ray Burst Spectra NTHU 2008.01.03 Lu, Ting-Ni

  2. X-ray burst • a neutron star and an accreting companion • Type I X-ray burst has a sharp rise followed by a slow and gradual decline of the luminosity profile Type II X-ray burst exhibits a quick pulse shape and may have many fast burst separated by minutes

  3. Determine properties of neutron stars • measuring the gravitational redshift of spectral lines produced in the surface of neutron stars

  4. Previous Observation - EXO 0748-676 • Cottam et al. (2002) reported features in the burst spectra of EXO 0748-676 which they interpreted as gravitationally redshifted absorption lines of Fe xxvi during the early phase of the bursts, and Fe xxv and perhaps O viii during the late phase • The lines would then all have a gravitational redshift of z = 0.35, which would correspond to a neutron star in the mass range of 1.4–1.8 M๏ and in the radius range of 9–12 km.

  5. Obs. Results of GS 1826-24 Light curve of 16 X-ray bursts from GS 1826-24

  6. Obs. Results of GS 1826-24 Representative burst profile (top) and temperature profile (bottom) from GS 182624 as observed with EPIC-pn.

  7. Obs. Results of GS 1826-24 Correlation between the blackbody temperatures and count rates of all bursts detected with EPIC-pn.

  8. Obs. Results of GS 1826-24 XMM-Newton RGS average background-subtracted spectra for 16 X-ray bursts from GS 1826-24. The three temperature phases are defined according to the spectral fits with the EPIC-pn data. An absorbed blackbody model is superimposed in red. The Ne x line at 12.1 (with 3.4 σ confidence) Åis included in the low-temperature spectrum.

  9. Discussion • The follow-up observations of EXO 0748-676 have failed to again reveal absorption lines from the stellar surface (Cottam et al. 2007)

  10. Discussion • Absorption features in burst spectra are very sensitive to the accretion rate, temperatures, density, and rotation frequency of the neutron star (Bildsten et al. 2003; Chang et al. 2005, 2006). • Temperature of the burst spectra

  11. Discussion • Rotational broadening: 1) Chang et al. (2005) calculated that for an edge-on neutron star with a rotation rate >200 Hz, the absorption features would become undetectable. 2) Chang et al. (2006) also showed that if a rapidly rotating neutron star is seen face-on, the spectral lines will be narrower.

  12. Discussion • Chemical composition of the atmosphere. • The possibility that the lines seen in EXO 0748-676 are not gravitational redshifted iron lines from the surface.

  13. Reference • Albert K. H. Kong, Jon M. Miller, Mariano Me´ndez, Jean Cottam, Walter H. G. Lewin, Frederik Paerels, Erik Kuulkers, Rudy Wijnands, and Michiel van der Klis 2007, ApJ, 670, L17–L20 • Cottam, J., Paerels, F., & Mendez, M. 2002, Nature, 420, 51 • Cottam, J., Paerels, F., Mendez, M, Boirin, L., Lewin, W. H. G., Kuulkers, E., & Miller, J. M. 2007, ApJ, in press (arXiv:0709.4062)

  14. THANK YOU !

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