The Spectral Evolution of Transient Anomalous X-ray Pulsar XTE J1810--197

Details The Spectral Evolution of Transient Anomalous X-ray Pulsar XTE J1810--197 The Spectral Evolution of Transient Anomalous X-ray Pulsar XTE J1810--197

2005-06-21

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0506511v1

Astrophys.J.632:1075-1085,2005

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

12 pages, 6 Figures, Latex, emulateapj. To appear in the Astrophysical Journal

Scientific paper

10.1086/432709

(Abridged) We present a multi-epoch spectral study of the Transient Anomalous X-ray Pulsar XTE J1810-197 obtained with the XMM X-ray telescope. Four observations taken over the course of a year reveal strong spectral evolution as the source fades from outburst. The origin of this is traced to the individual decay rates of the pulsar's spectral components. A 2-T fit at each epoch requires nearly constant temperatures of kT=0.25 & 0.67 keV while the component luminosities decrease exponentially with tau=900 & 300d, respectively. One possible interpretation is that the slowly decaying cooler component is the radiation from a deep heating event that affected a large fraction of the crust, while the hotter component is powered by external surface heating at the foot-points of twisted magnetic field lines, by magnetospheric currents that are decaying more rapidly. The energy-dependent pulse profile of XTE J1810-197 is well modeled at all epochs by the sum of a sine and triangle function. These profiles peak at the same phase, suggesting a concentric surface emission geometry. The spectral and pulse evolution together argue against the presence of a significant ``power-law'' contribution to the X-ray spectrum below 8 keV. The extrapolated flux is projected to return to the historic quiescent level, characterized by an even cooler blackbody spectrum, by the year 2007.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The Spectral Evolution of Transient Anomalous X-ray Pulsar XTE J1810--197 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 The Spectral Evolution of Transient Anomalous X-ray Pulsar XTE J1810--197, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Spectral Evolution of Transient Anomalous X-ray Pulsar XTE J1810--197 will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-481066