Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21536002c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #360.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.547
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Over the last few years, Suzaku and XMM-Newton have clearly detected relativistically broadened Fe K lines in 10 neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries. We present a comprehensive analysis of all these observations. The Fe K lines are well fit by a relativistic line model for a Schwarzschild metric, and imply a narrow range of inner disk radii (6 - 15 GM/c2) in most cases. This implies that the accretion disk extends close to the neutron star surface over a range of source states. Continuum modeling shows that for the majority of observations, a blackbody component (plausibly associated with the boundary layer) dominates the X-ray emission from 8-20 keV. Thus it appears likely that this spectral component produces the majority of the ionizing flux that illuminates the accretion disk. Therefore, we also fit the spectra with a blurred reflection model, wherein a blackbody component illuminates the disk. This model fits well in most cases, supporting the idea that the boundary layer is illuminating a geometrically thin disk.
Cackett Edward
Miller John Mcl.
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