Swift Observations of Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients

Details Swift Observations of Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients Swift Observations of Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients

Jan 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21330807k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #308.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.280

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We report on monitoring and outburst triggered observations of 4 Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients (SFXT) in a variety of X-ray states. SFXTs are a recently discovered class of High-Mass X-ray Binaries, whose optical counterparts are blue supergiant stars, first discovered by the INTEGRAL satellite. SFXTs are transient X-ray sources which exhibit extreme outbursts, brightening 4 orders of magnitude from their quiescent level. X-ray emission between outbursts is also highly variable on short timescales. Swift's unique scheduling flexibility has allowed us to obtain weekly or greater short (1-2 ks) monitoring observations of 4 SFXTs with the Swift X-Ray Telescope (XRT) over their entire visibility period for a year ( 9 months). In addition to the periodic monitoring, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) is sensitive to the bright outbursts from these objects, and if BAT detects an outburst, Swift performs an autonomous and rapid repointing to the SFXT in outburst and is typically collecting X-ray data within a few minutes of the outburst being detected. Outbursts are typically observed for days by the XRT, giving us very detailed information of the outburst light-curves. Theoretical interpretations of the SFXT X-ray light-curves are discussed.

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