Variability of the X-ray Spectra of LMC X-4 and SMC X-1 During Their Long-Period Variability

Details Variability of the X-ray Spectra of LMC X-4 and SMC X-1 During Their Long-Period Variability Variability of the X-ray Spectra of LMC X-4 and SMC X-1 During Their Long-Period Variability

Apr 1999

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999head....4.1521h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #4, #15.21; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 31, p.715

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

2

Scientific paper

LMC X-4 and SMC X-1 are accreting X-ray pulsars, which, like Her X-1, have approximately periodic modulations of their X-ray flux on timescales much longer than the neutron star spin period and the binary orbital period. In Her X-1, it is well established that these long-period cycles are due to occultation by a twisted, precessing accretion disk. We present results from a Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) long-term monitoring campaign on LMC X-4 and SMC X-1. By measuring the X-ray spectrum at fixed orbital phase but varying long-term phase, we hoped to test the hypothesis that these systems have precessing accretion disks. In SMC X-1, the neutral column to the source was highest during the ``off'' part of the cycle, which is consistent with absorption in a cool accretion disk. In LMC X-4, however, no neutral column was significantly detected at any time. This means that if the flux modulation is caused by a disk, it must occur at the hot, ionized inner disk region where Thomson scattering can remove photons from the beam without affecting the overall spectral shape.

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