The Symbiotic X-ray Binary 3A 1954+319

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

We present an analysis of the highly variable X-ray source 3A 1954+319 from 2005 to 2009. We focus on an outburst serendipitously observed during INTEGRAL Key Program observations of the Cygnus region in November 2008 and on the Swift-BAT longterm light curve. The source has been identified to be one of only eight known symbiotic X-ray binaries, systems composed of an accreting neutron star orbiting in a highly inhomogeneous medium around an M-giant companion. Its 3-80 keV spectrum can be described by a broken power law model. The extremely long pulse period of 5.3 hours is clearly visible in the INTEGRAL-ISGRI light curve and confirmed by an epoch folding period search. Furthermore, these light curves allow for the determination of a very strong spin-up of -2 x 10-4 d/d during the 2008 outburst. This is confirmed by the pulse period evolution calculated from Swift-BAT data. Based on these results we discuss a possible wind accretion scenario for this source. In addition, we present a preliminary analysis of high quality data of the soft spectral component of 3A 1954+319 obtained with Chandra and RXTE in 2010/2011 during a relatively stable phase of moderate source brightness, allowing us to further constrain properties of the X-ray source as well as the M-star wind.

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