Iron Line Observation of VELA X-1 with BBXRT Instrument

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

Vela X-1 was observed in the energy range 1-12 keV with the Broad Band X- ray Telescope (BBXRT) instruments for a continuous coverage of 2929 seconds which was about 10 of this binary X-ray pulsar's pulse period. The pulse modulation is clearly seen. The orbital phase was at 0.19 and the continuum spectrum was fitted to a simple power law with low energy absorption which showed low column density, 3times 10(22}cm({-2)) , and there was no obviously detectable absorption edge at 7.1-7.3 keV as was observed by previous experiments. The highly variable column density from 2times 10(22) to 5times 10(23}cm({-2)) at different orbital phase is attributed to the variability of the observations. The known variable Fe-K_alpha fluorescence line at 6.4 keV due to the X-ray beam interacting with the ambient cold matter, such as the accreting stellar wind, maybe of the accretion disk, and the atmosphere of the optical companion, HD 77581, was detected with a focal plane solid state detector, Si(Li), of which the energy resolution was 150 eV FWHM at 6 keV. No pulse phase modulation was found in the iron line parameters. It is a weak line with its equivalence width at 60 eV but it is first time resolved to a width of 155 eV FWHM. If the line width is broadened by the photons scattering off the thermal electrons, the temperature of the reprocessing site of the fluorescence iron line is no more than 4 times 10(5) K. The location of the reprocessing site is discussed.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Iron Line Observation of VELA X-1 with BBXRT Instrument does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Iron Line Observation of VELA X-1 with BBXRT Instrument, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Iron Line Observation of VELA X-1 with BBXRT Instrument will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1110607

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.