We have found and analysed 16 multi-peaked type-I bursts from the neutron-star low mass X-ray binary 4U 1636$-$53 with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). One of the bursts is a rare quadruple-peaked burst which was not previously reported. All 16 bursts show a multi-peaked structure not only in the X-ray light curves but also in the bolometric light curves. Most of the multi-peaked bursts appear in observations during the transition from the hard to the soft state in the colour-colour diagram. We find an anti-correlation between the second peak flux and the separation time between two peaks. We also find that in the double-peaked bursts the peak-flux ratio and the temperature of the thermal component in the pre-burst spectra are correlated. This indicates that the double-peaked structure in the light curve of the bursts may be affected by enhanced accretion rate in the disc, or increased temperature of the neutron star.
The Be/X-ray binary A 0535+26 showed a normal (type I) outburst in August 2009. It is the fourth in a series of normal outbursts associated with the periastron, but is unusual by presenting a double-peaked light curve. The two peaks reached a flux of ~450 mCrab in the 15-50 keV range. We present results of the timing and spectral analysis of INTEGRAL, RXTE, and Suzaku observations of the outburst. The energy dependent pulse profiles and their evolution during the outburst are studied. No significant differences with respect to other normal outbursts are observed. The centroid energy of the fun…
The prototypical accretion-powered millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 was observed simultaneously with Chandra-LETGS and RXTE-PCA near the peak of a transient outburst in November 2011. A single thermonuclear (type-I) burst was detected, the brightest yet observed by Chandra from any source, and the second-brightest observed by RXTE. We found no evidence for discrete spectral features during the burst; absorption edges have been predicted to be present in such bursts, but may require a greater degree of photospheric expansion than the rather moderate expansion seen in this event (a factor of …
We analysed the complete set of bursts from the neutron-star low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1820-30 detected with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). We found that all are photospheric radius expansion bursts, and have similar duration, peak flux and fluence. From the analysis of time-resolved spectra during the cooling phase of the bursts, we found that the relation between the bolometric flux and the temperature is very different from the canonical F - T^4 relation that is expected if the apparent emitting area on the surface of the neutron star remains constant. The flux-temperature relation …
We describe a blind uniform search for thermonuclear burst oscillations (TBOs) in the majority of Type-I bursts observed by RXTE (2118 bursts from 57 neutron stars). We examined 2-2002 Hz power spectra from the Fourier transform in sliding 0.5-2 s windows, using fine-binned light curves in 2-60 keV energy range. The significance of the oscillation candidates was assessed by simulations which took into account light curve variations, dead time and sliding time windows. Some of our sources exhibited multi-frequency variability below approximately 15 Hz that cannot be readily removed with light-c…
We study the fluence distributions of over 3040 bursts from SGR 1806-20 and over 1963 bursts from SGR 1900+14 using the complete set of observations available from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer/Proportional Counter Array through March 2011. Cumulative event distributions are presented for both sources and are fitted with single and broken power laws as well as an exponential cutoff. The distributions are best fit by a broken power law with exponential cutoff, however the statistical significance of the cutoff is not high and the upper portion of the broken power law can be explained as the e…
Quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) observed in the giant flares of magnetars are of particular interest due to their potential to open up a window into the neutron star interior via neutron star asteroseismology. However, only three giant flares have been observed. We therefore make use of the much larger data set of shorter, less energetic recurrent bursts. Here, we report on a search for QPOs in a large data set of bursts from the two most burst-active magnetars, SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14, observed with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). We find a single detection in an averaged perio…
Long suspected to be due to unstable accretion events, the type II bursts exhibited by the Rapid Burster (RB, or MXB 1730-335) still lack an exhaustive explanation. Apart from type II bursts, the transient RB also shows the better-understood thermonuclear shell flashes known as type I bursts. In search of links between these two phenomena, we carried out a comprehensive analysis of all $\textit{Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer}$ observations of the RB and found six atypical type I bursts, featuring a double-peaked profile that is not due to photospheric radius expansion. The bursts appear in a phas…
Mass-Radius Constraints for 2S 0918-549 from an RXTE Superexpansion Burst: A Direct Cooling-Tail Analysis
School of Physical Science and Technology, Xinjiang University（新疆大学物理科学与技术学院）；School of Science, Qingdao University of Technology（青岛理工大学理学院）；Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高能物理研究所粒子天体物理重点实验室）；RIKEN Pioneering Research Institute (PRI)（理学前瞻性研究院）；RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS)（理科大学际理论与数学科学中心）；Department of Astronomy, Peking University（北京大学天文系）；Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University（北京大学卡尔·萨根天文与天体物理研究所）
The burst-only Swift J1749.4-2807 source was discovered in a high X-ray-active state, while during an {INTEGRAL observations of the Galactic bulge on 2010 April 10. Pulsations at 518 Hz were discovered in the RXTE data, confirming previous suggestions of possible associations between burst-only sources and accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars. The subsequent discovery of X-ray eclipses made Swift J1749.4$-$2807 the first eclipsing accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar. We obtain additional information on Swift J1749.4-2807 and other burst-only sources. We report on the results of a monitoring camp…
We have discovered a triple-peaked X-ray burst from the low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) 4U 1636-53 with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). This is the first triple-peaked burst reported from any LMXB using RXTE, and it is only the second burst of this kind observed from any source. (The previous one was also from 4U 1636-53, and was observed with EXOSAT.) From fits to time-resolved spectra, we find that this is not a radius-expansion burst, and that the same triple-peaked pattern seen in the X-ray light curve is also present in the bolometric light curve of the burst. Similar to what was pre…
We present analysis of two type-I X-ray bursts observed by NuSTAR originating from the very faint transient neutron star low-mass X-ray binary GRS 1741.9-2853 during a period of outburst in May 2020. We show that the persistent emission can be modeled as an absorbed, Comptonized blackbody in addition to Fe K$α$ emission which can be attributed to relativistic disk reflection. We measure a persistent bolometric, unabsorbed luminosity of $L_{\mathrm{bol}}=7.03^{+0.04}_{-0.05}\times10^{36}\,\mathrm{erg\,s^{-1}}$, assuming a distance of 7 kpc, corresponding to an Eddington ratio of $4.5\%$. This p…
We present the statistical analysis of the properties of gamma-ray bursts with measured host galaxy redshifts and peaked optical light curves in proper frames of reference. The optical transients are classified by comparing the time lag of the optical peak relative to the GRB trigger with the duration of the gamma-ray emission itself. The results of the correlation analysis of all possible pairs of energy, spectral, and temporal characteristics of both gamma-ray and optical emissions are given. We specify the pairs of the parameters with correlation coefficients greater than 50 % at significan…
Swift/BAT and RXTE/ASM observations have monitored the X-ray binary system Her X-1 for approximately 14.5 years each, and both were monitoring Her X-1 for a period of ~5.5 years. Here we study the 35-day cycle using these observations. Using a cross-correlation method we find the times of peaks of the 35-day cycles for ~150 cycles observed by Swift/BAT and ~150 cycles observed by RXTE/ASM. These cycles include ~60 observed with both instruments. The noise level of the RXTE/ASM measurements is larger than that of Swift/BAT, resulting in larger uncertainty in peak times. The distribution of 35-d…
We report the detection of 15 X-ray bursts with RXTE and Swift observations of the peculiar X-ray binary Circinus X-1 during its May 2010 X-ray re-brightening. These are the first X-ray bursts observed from the source after the initial discovery by Tennant and collaborators, twenty-five years ago. By studying their spectral evolution, we firmly identify nine of the bursts as type I (thermonuclear) X-ray bursts. We obtain an arcsecond location of the bursts that confirms once and for all the identification of Cir X-1 as a type I X-ray burst source, and therefore as a low magnetic field accretin…
We analysed thermonuclear (type-I) X-ray bursts observed from the low-mass X-ray binary 4U1728-34 by RXTE, Chandra and INTEGRAL. We compared the variation in burst energy and recurrence times as a function of accretion rate with the predictions of a numerical ignition model including a treatment of the heating and cooling in the crust. We found that the measured burst ignition column depths are significantly below the theoretically predicted values, regardless of the assumed thermal structure of the neutron star interior. While it is possible that the accretion rate measured by Chandra is unde…
Many techniques for measuring neutron star radii rely on absolute flux measurements in the X-rays. As a result, one of the fundamental uncertainties in these spectroscopic measurements arises from the absolute flux calibrations of the detectors being used. Using the stable X-ray burster, GS 1826-238, and its simultaneous observations by Chandra HETG/ACIS-S and RXTE/PCA as well as by XMM-Newton EPIC-pn and RXTE/PCA, we quantify the degree of uncertainty in the flux calibration by assessing the differences between the measured fluxes during bursts. We find that the RXTE/PCA and the Chandra grati…
A millisecond magnetar engine has been widely suggested to exist in gamma-ray burst (GRB) phenomena, in view of its substantial influences on the GRB afterglow emission. In this paper, we investigate the effects of the magnetar engine on the supernova (SN) emission which is associated with long GRBs and, specifically, confront the model with the observational data of SN 2006aj/GRB 060218. SN 2006aj is featured by its remarkable double-peaked ultraviolet-optical (UV-opt) light curves. By fitting these light curves, we demonstrate that the first peak can be well accounted for by the breakout emi…
A normal outburst of the Be/X-ray binary system A0535+26 has taken place in August 2009. It is the fourth in a series of normal outbursts that have occured around the periastron passage of the source, but is unusual by starting at an earlier orbital phase and by presenting a peculiar double-peaked light curve. A first "flare" (lasting about 9 days from MJD 55043 on) reached a flux of 440 mCrab. The flux then decreased to less than 220 mCrab, and increased again reaching 440 mCrab around the periastron at MJD 55057. Target of Opportunity observations have been performed with INTEGRAL, RXTE and …
Aims: A hard X-ray shortage, implying the cooling of the corona, was observed during bursts of IGR J17473-272, 4U 1636-536, Aql X-1, and GS 1826-238. Apart from these four sources, we investigate here an atoll sample, in which the number of bursts for each source is larger than 5, to explore the possible additional hard X-ray shortage during {\it Rossi X-ray timing explorer (RXTE)} era. Methods: According to the source catalog that shows type-I bursts, we analyzed all the available pointing observations of these sources carried out by the {\it RXTE} proportional counter array (PCA). We grouped…
Multi-peaked features appear on the integrated pulse profiles of fast radio burst observed below 2.5 GHz and the instantaneous spectrum of many bursts observed between 4 and 8 GHz. The mechanism of pulse or spectrum shaping has attracted little attention. Here we show that these interference-like pulse profiles are mostly the instantaneous spectra near the source regions of fast radio bursts. The corresponding instantaneous spectra are coincident to the spectrum from a single electron passing through a tapered undulator. The multi-peaked spectrum observed between 4 and 8 GHz can also be explai…
Very recently a fast radio burst (FRB) 200428 associated with a strong X-ray burst from the Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154 has been detected, which is direct evidence supporting the magnetar progenitor models of FRBs. Assuming the FRB radiation mechanism is synchrotron maser emission from magnetized shocks, we develop a specific scenario by introducing a density jump structure of upstream medium, and thus the double-peaked character of FRB 200428 is a natural outcome. The luminosity and emission frequency of two pulses can be well explained in this scenario. Furthermore, we find that the sync…
We investigate the spectral and timing properties of the millihertz quasi-periodic oscillations (mHz QPOs) in neutron-star low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1636-53 using XMM-Newton and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observations. The mHz QPOs in the XMM-Newton/RXTE observations show significant frequency variation and disappear right before type I X-ray bursts. We find no significant correlation between the mHz QPO frequency and the temperature of the neutron-star surface, which is different from theoretical predictions. For the first time we observed the full lifetime of a mHz QPO lasting 19 ks. …
Two outbursts were observed by RXTE in the history of the atoll source IGR J17473-2721. During the most recent outburst in 2008, the source showed a complete series of spectral states/transitions. The neutron star system was prolific in type-I X-ray bursts, and we investigate them in the context of complete outbursts evolution. A total exposure of ~ 309 ks was collected by RXTE during the two outbursts of IGR J17473-2721. We carried out a systematic search for type-I bursts in this data set. For each burst found, we investigated the burst profile, the peak flux, and their dependence on the acc…
SGR~0501+4516 was discovered with the Swift satellite on 2008 August 22, after it emitted a series of very energetic bursts. Since then, the source was extensively monitored with Swift, the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and observed with Chandra and XMM-Newton, providing a wealth of information about its outburst behavior and burst induced changes of its persistent X-ray emission. Here we report the most accurate location of SGR~0501+4516 (with an accuracy of 0.11'') derived with Chandra. Using the combined RXTE, Swift/X-ray Telescope, Chandra and XMM-Newton observations we construct a ph…
We present the largest sample of type-I (thermonuclear) X-ray bursts yet assembled, comprising 7083 bursts from 85 bursting sources. The sample is drawn from observations with Xenon-filled proportional counters on the long-duration satellites RXTE, BeppoSAX and INTEGRAL, between 1996 February 8, and 2012 May 3. The burst sources were drawn from a comprehensive catalog of 115 burst sources, assembled from earlier catalogs and the literature. We carried out a consistent analysis for each burst lightcurve (normalised to the relative instrumental effective area), and provide measurements of rise t…
The low mass X-ray binary 4U 1728-24 was observed with AstroSat/LAXPC on 8th March 2016. Data from a randomly chosen one orbit of over 3 ks was analyzed for detection of rapid intensity variations. We found that the source intensity was nearly steady but towards the end of the observation a typical Type-1 burst was detected. Dynamical power spectrum of the data in the 3 to 20 keV band, reveals presence of a kHz Quasi-Periodic Oscillation (QPO) whose frequency drifted from around 815 Hz at the beginning of the observation to about 850 Hz just before the burst. The QPO is also detected in the 10…
[abridged] The LMXB 4U 0614+091 is a source of sporadic thermonuclear (type I) X-ray bursts. We find bursts with a wide variety of characteristics in serendipitous wide-field X-ray observations by EURECA/WATCH, RXTE/ASM, BeppoSAX/WFC, HETE-2/FREGATE, INTEGRAL/IBIS/ISGRI, and Swift/BAT, as well as pointed observations by RXTE/PCA and HEXTE. Most of them reach a peak flux of ~15 Crab, but a few only reach a peak flux below a Crab. One of the bursts shows a very strong photospheric radius-expansion phase. This allows us to evaluate the distance to the source: 3.2 kpc. The burst durations are betw…
We report on a study of GS 1826--238 using all available {\it RXTE} observations, concentrating on the behavior of the hard X-rays during type-I bursts. We find a hard X-ray shortage at 30--50 keV promoted by the shower of soft X-rays coming from type-I bursts. This shortage happens with a time delay after the peak of the soft flux of 3.6 $\pm$ 1.2 seconds.The behavior of hard X-rays during bursts indicates cooling and reheating of the corona, during which a large amount of energy is required. We speculate that this energy originates from the feedback of the type-I bursts to the accretion proc…
Magnetars are highly magnetized neutron stars that are characterized by recurrent emission of short-duration bursts in soft gamma-rays/hard X-rays. Recently, FRB 200428 were found to be associated with an X-ray burst from a Galactic magnetar. Two fast radio bursts (FRBs) show mysterious periodic activity. However, whether magnetar X-ray bursts are periodic phenomena is unclear. In this paper, we investigate the period of SGR 1806-20 activity. More than 3000 short bursts observed by different telescopes are collected, including the observation of RXTE, HETE-2, ICE and Konus. We consider the obs…
We present the results of our extensive search using the Bayesian block method for long tails following short bursts from a magnetar, SGR J1550-5418, over all RXTE observations of the source. We identified four bursts with extended tails, most of which occurred during its 2009 burst active episode. The durations of tails range between ~13 s and over 3 ks, which are much longer than the typical duration of bursts. We performed detailed spectral and temporal analysis of the burst tails. We find that the spectra of three tails show a thermal nature with a trend of cooling throughout the tail. We …
X-ray burst spectra have long been used to estimate neutron star masses and radii. These estimates assumed that burst spectra are accurately described by the model atmosphere spectra developed over the last three decades. We compared RXTE data from a superburst with these spectra and found that the spectra predicted by previously published model atmospheres are strongly inconsistent with these high-precision measurements. In contrast, a simple Bose-Einstein spectrum is fully consistent with the data, as are recently published model atmosphere spectra. We discuss the implications of our results…
Type-I X-ray bursts on the surface of a neutron star are a unique probe to the accretion in X-ray binary systems. However, we know little about the feedback of the burst emission upon accretion. Hard X-ray shortages and enhancements of the persistent emission at soft X-rays have been observed. To put these findings in context with the aim of understanding the possible mechanism underneath, we investigated 68 bursts seen by RXTE from the clocked burster GS 1826--238. We diagnosed jointly the burst influence at both soft and hard X-rays, and found that the observations can be described as the Co…
Isolated Swift gamma-ray burst (GRB) pulses, like their higher-energy BATSE counterparts, emit the bulk of their pulsed emission as a hard-to-soft component that can be fitted by the Norris et al. (2005) empirical pulse model. This signal is overlaid by a fainter, three-peaked signal that can be modeled by an empirical wave-like function (Hakkila and Preece, 2014): the two fits combine to reproduce GRB pulses with distinctive three-peaked shapes. The precursor peak appears on or before the pulse rise and is often the hardest component, the central peak is the brightest, and the decay peak conv…
We analyze pulse properties of Short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) from a new catalog containing 434 pulses from 387 BATSE Time-Tagged Event (TTE) GRBs. Short GRB pulses exhibit correlated properties of duration, fluence, hardness, and amplitude, and they evolve hard-to-soft while undergoing similar triple-peaked light curves similar to those found in Long/Intermediate bursts. We classify pulse light curves using their temporal complexities, demonstrating that Short GRB pulses exhibit a range of complexities from smooth to highly variable. Most of the bright, hard, chaotic emission seen in complex p…
The hydrogen and helium accreted by X-ray bursting neutron stars is periodically consumed in runaway thermonuclear reactions that cause the entire surface to glow brightly in X-rays for a few seconds. With models of the emission, the mass and radius of the neutron star can be inferred from the observations. By simultaneously probing neutron star masses and radii, X-ray bursts are one of the strongest diagnostics of the nature of matter at extremely high densities. Accurate determinations of these parameters are difficult, however, due to the highly non-ideal nature of the atmospheres where X-r…
GRO J1744-28, commonly known as the `Bursting Pulsar', is a low mass X-ray binary containing a neutron star and an evolved giant star. This system, together with the Rapid Burster (MXB 1730-33), are the only two systems that display the so-called Type II X-ray bursts. These type of bursts, which last for 10s of seconds, are thought to be caused by viscous instabilities in the disk; however the Type II bursts seen in GRO J1744-28 are qualitatively very different from those seen in the archetypal Type II bursting source the Rapid Burster. To understand these differences and to create a framework…
After in quiescence for 49 years, 4U~1730--22 became active and had two outbursts in 2021 \& 2022; ten thermonuclear X-ray bursts were detected with Insight-HXMT. Among them, the faintest burst showed a double-peaked profile, placing the source as the 5th accreting neutron star (NS) exhibiting double/triple-peaked type-I X-ray bursts; the other bursts showed photospheric radius expansion (PRE). The properties of double-peaked non-PRE burst indicate that it could be related to a stalled burning front. For the five bright PRE bursts, apart from the emission from the neutron star (NS) surface, we…
To investigate the possible cooling of the corona by soft X-rays bursts, we have studied 114 bursts embedded in the known X-ray evolution of 4U 1636-536. We have grouped these bursts according to the ratio of the flux in the 1.5--12 keV band with respect to that in the 15--50 keV band, as monitored by RXTE/ASM and Swift/BAT, respectively. We have detected a shortage at hard X-rays while bursting. This provides hints for a corona cooling process driven by soft X-rays fed by the bursts that occurred on the surface of neutron star. The flux shortage at 30--50 keV has a time lag of 2.4$\pm$1.5 sec…
We present the analysis of two long Gamma-Ray Bursts, GRB 090323 and GRB 090328, which triggered the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) and generated an Autonomous Repoint Request to the Fermi Large Area Telescope. The GBM light curves show multi-peaked structures for both events. Here, we present time-integrated and time-resolved burst spectra fitted with different models by the GBM detectors.
We have studied X-ray spectral state transitions that can be seen in the long- term monitoring light curves of bright X-ray binaries from the All-Sky Monitor (ASM) on board the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on board Swift during a period of five years from 2005 to 2010. We have applied a program to automatically identify the hard-to-soft (H-S) spectral state transitions in the bright X- ray binaries monitored by the ASM and the BAT. In total we identified 128 hard-to-soft transitions, of which 59 occurred after 2008. We also determined the transition fl…
Time resolved X-ray spectroscopy of thermonuclear bursts observed from low mass X-ray binaries offer a unique tool to measure neutron star masses and radii. In this paper, we continue our systematic analysis of all the X-ray bursts observed with RXTE from X-ray binaries. We determine the events which show clear evidence for photospheric radius expansion and measure the Eddington limits for these accreting neutron stars using the bolometric fluxes attained at the touchdown moments of each X-ray burst. We employ a Bayesian technique to investigate the degree to which the Eddington limit for each…
We present a summary of the long-term evolution of various properties of the five non-transient Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs) 1E 1841-045, RXS J170849.0-400910, 1E 2259+586, 4U 0142+61, and 1E 1048.1-5937, regularly monitored with RXTE from 1996 to 2012. We focus on three properties of these sources: the evolution of the timing, pulsed flux, and pulse profile. We report several new timing anomalies and radiative events, including a putative anti-glitch seen in 1E 2259+586 in 2009, and a second epoch of very large spin-down rate fluctuations in 1E 1048.1-5937 following a large flux outburst. W…
Type I X-ray bursts from low-mass X-ray binaries result from a thermonuclear runaway in the material accreted onto the neutron star. Although typical recurrence times are a few hours, consistent with theoretical ignition model predictions, there are also observations of bursts occurring as promptly as ten minutes or less after the previous event. We present a comprehensive assessment of this phenomenon using a catalog of 3387 bursts observed with the BeppoSAX/WFCs and RXTE/PCA X-ray instruments. This catalog contains 136 bursts with recurrence times of less than one hour, that come in multiple…
We present an extended set of model atmospheres and emergent spectra of X-ray bursting neutron stars in low mass X-ray binaries. Compton scattering is taken into account. The models were computed in LTE approximation for six different chemical compositions: pure hydrogen and pure helium atmospheres, and atmospheres with a solar mix of hydrogen and helium and various heavy elements abundances: Z = 1, 0.3, 0.1, and 0.01 Z_sun, for three values of gravity, log g =14.0, 14.3, and 14.6 and for 20 values of relative luminosity l = L/L_Edd in the range 0.001 - 0.98. The emergent spectra of all models…
SAX J1810.8-2609 is a faint X-ray transient, mostly known for its abnormally low quiescent thermal luminosity, which disagrees with standard cooling models. It is also one of a small sample of stars whose mass and radius have been estimated using spectral modeling of one of its thermonuclear bursts. Here we report the discovery of millisecond oscillations in a type I thermonuclear X-ray burst from SAX J1810.8-2609 observed by RXTE during the 2007 outburst. A strong signal (Leahy-normalized power of 71.5, 4.5e-9 chance of coincidence with a conservative estimate for the number of trials) was pr…
In this paper we propose that a fast radio burst (FRB) could originate from the magnetic interaction between double neutron stars (NSs) during their final inspiral within the framework of a unipolar inductor model. In this model, an electromotive force is induced on one NS to accelerate electrons to an ultra-relativistic speed instantaneously. We show that coherent curvature radiation from these electrons moving along magnetic field lines in the magnetosphere of the other NS is responsible for the observed FRB signal, that is, the characteristic emission frequency, luminosity, duration and eve…
Investigating peculiar prompt emission properties of the multi-Peaked GRB 250129A
University of Johannesburg（约翰内斯堡大学）；Omdurman Islamic University（恩图曼伊斯兰大学）；The George Washington University（乔治华盛顿大学）；National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences（理论与计算科学国家研究所）
When neutron stars (NS) accrete gas from low-mass binary companions, explosive nuclear burning reactions in the NS envelope fuse hydrogen and helium into heavier elements. The resulting thermonuclear (type-I) X-ray bursts produce energy spectra that are fit well with black bodies, but a significant number of burst observations show deviations from Planck spectra. Here we present our analysis of RXTE/PCA observations of X-ray bursts from the NS low-mass X-ray binary HETE J1900.1-2455. We have discovered that the non-Planckian spectra are caused by photo-ionization edges. The anti-correlation be…
We investigate the thermonuclear bursting behaviour of IGR J17473-2721, an X-ray transient that in 2008 underwent a six month long outburst, starting (unusually) with an X-ray burst. We detected a total of 57 thermonuclear bursts throughout the outburst with AGILE, Swift, RXTE, and INTEGRAL. The wide range of inferred accretion rates (between <1% and about 20% of the Eddington accretion rate m-dot_Edd) spanned during the outburst allows us to study changes in the nuclear burning processes and to identify up to seven different phases. The burst rate increased gradually with the accretion rate u…
We report the detection of eight bright X-ray bursts from the 6.5-s magnetar 1E 1048.1-5937, during a 2013 July observation campaign with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). We study the morphological and spectral properties of these bursts and their evolution with time. The bursts resulted in count rate increases by orders of magnitude, sometimes limited by the detector dead time, and showed blackbody spectra with kT=6-8 keV in the T90 duration of 1-4 s, similar to earlier bursts detected from the source. We find that the spectra during the tail of the bursts can be modeled wi…
The measurement of neutron star mass and radius is one of the most direct way to distinguish between various dense matter equations of state. The mass and radius of accreting neutron stars hosted in low mass X-ray binaries can be constrained by several methods, including photospheric radius expansion from type-I X-ray bursts and from quiescent spectra. In this paper, we apply for the first time these two methods simultaneously to constrain the mass and radius of Aql X-1, as a reliable distance estimation, high signal-to-noise ratio quiescent spectra from Chandra and XMM-Newton, and photospheri…
In August 2008, the accreting milli-second X-ray pulsar (AMXP), IGR J00291+5934, underwent an outburst lasting ~ 100 days, the first since its discovery in 2004. We present data from the double-peaked outburst from Faulkes Telescope North, the INT, the Keck Telescope, PAIRITEL, the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope and the Swift, XMM-Newton and RXTE X-ray missions. We study the outburst's evolution at various wavelengths. We study the light curve morphology, presenting the first radio-X-ray Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) for this source and the most detailed UV-IR SEDs for any outburs…
We use the 2011 Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) proportional counter array (PCA) data of the 401 Hz accreting pulsar and burster IGR J17498-2921 to perform timing analysis and time-resolved spectroscopy of 12 thermonuclear X-ray bursts. We confirm previously reported burst oscillations from this source with a much higher significance (8.8σ). We notice that the bursts can be divided into three groups: big photospheric radius expansion (PRE) bursts are about ten times more luminous than medium bursts, while the latter are about ten times more luminous than small bursts. The PCA field-of-view …
