Other
Scientific paper
Feb 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010head...11.4211b&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #11, #42.11; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.726
Other
Scientific paper
One of the most intriguing discoveries obtained by the INTEGRAL mission is the identification of a new class of hard X-ray transients, the Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients (SFXTs). They are a subclass of High Mass X-ray Binaries, with 20 members to date (10 firmly identified, the others are candidates), hosting an OB supergiant donor and displaying short X-ray outbursts with fast flares on brief timescales of hours and large flux variability in the range 10E3-10E5.
The Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST), with its hard X-ray imaging (5-600 keV) all-sky deep survey and large improved limiting sensitivity, will explore the transient X-ray Universe to get a clearer picture of this new class of puzzling transients, whose actual physical mechanism driving the emission is still unknown. Some models involve the structure of the supergiant wind and the orbital parameters, others invoke very low magnetic field values (B<1E10 G) or alternatively very high (B>1E14 G, magnetars). Orbital parameters are largely unknown, as well as the duty cycles. No cyclotron lines have been detected to date, except in IGRJ18483-0311, where a hint for a cyclotron line at 3.3 keV has been found, implying a neutron star magnetic field of a few time 1E11 G. The magnetic field in all other SFXTs is unknown.
A complete census of the number of these sources is essential to enlarge the sample and possibly discover different SFXTs sub-classes. A long term and continuous as possible X-ray monitoring of SFXTs is crucial to (1)-obtain the duty cycle, (2)-investigate their orbital parameters and search periodicities predicted by some models, (3)-to completely cover the whole outburst activity (now possible only for SFXTs with periodically recurrent X-ray flaring activity), (4)-to search for cyclotron lines in the high energy spectra which will allow a direct measurement of the neutron star magnetic field.
Bazzano Angela
Grindlay Jonathan
Natalucci Lorenzo
Sguera Vito
Sidoli Lara
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