Orbital evolution studies of two HMXB pulsars

High mass X-ray binary (HMXB) pulsars are of two types, persistent and transient. 4U1538−52 is a persistent HMXB whose orbit was previously measured to be circular but the RXTE observations revealed an eccentric orbit. We observed this system with RXTE-PCA in August 2003 and our timing analysis supports the eccentric orbit of the system. However, we do not find any evidence for orbital evolution.

Rotational and tidal interactions between the stars of a closed binary system result in apsidal motion which can be measured in systems with eccentric orbit. 4U0115+63 is a Be-transient HMXB whose eccentric orbit was well-determined during its 1978 outburst. We report preliminary results from analysis of data obtained during the 1999 outburst of this source with the RXTE-PCA.     

Orbital phase spectroscopy of four high mass X-ray binary pulsars to study the stellar wind of the companion

Our work focuses on a comprehensive orbital phase-dependent spectroscopy of the four High Mass X-ray Binary Pulsars (HMXBPs) 4U 1538-52, GX 301-2, OAO 1657-415 and Vela X-1. We hereby report the measurements of the variation of the absorption column density and iron-line flux along with other spectral parameters over the binary orbit for the above-mentioned HMXBPs in elliptical orbits, as observed with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and the BeppoSAX satellites. A spherically symmetric wind profile was used as a model to compare the observed column density variations. Out of the four pulsars, only in 4U 1538-52, we find the model having a reasonable corroboration with the observations, whereas in the remaining three the stellar wind seems to be clumpy and a smooth symmetric stellar wind model appears to be quite inadequate in explaining the data. Moreover, in GX 301-2, neither the presence of a disk nor a gas stream from the companion was validated. Furthermore, the spectral results obtained in the case of OAO 1657-415 and Vela X-1 were more or less similar to that of GX 301-2.     

Possible Suzaku detection of non-thermal X-ray signals from a rotating magnetized white dwarf

Although rotating neutron stars (NSs) have been regarded as being textbook examples of astrophysical particle acceleration sites for decades, details of the acceleration mechanism remain a mystery; for example, we cannot yet observationally distinguish “polar cap” models from “outer gap” models. To solve the model degeneracy, it is useful to study similar systems with much different physical parameters. Strongly magnetized white dwarfs (WDs) are ideal for this purpose, because they have essentially the same system geometry as NSs, but differ largely from NSs in the system parameters, including the size, magnetic field, and the rotation velocity, with the induced electric field expected to reach 10¹³–10¹⁴ eV. Based on this idea, the best candidate among WDs, AE Aquarii, was observed with the fifth Japaneses X-ray satellite, Suzaku. The hard X-ray detector (HXD) on-board Suzaku has the highest sensitivity in the hard X-ray band over 10 keV. A marginal detection in the hard X-ray band was achieved with the HXD, and was separated from the thermal emission. The flux corresponds to about 0.02% of its spin-down energy. If the signal is real, this observation must be a first case of the detection of non-thermal emission from WDs.     

Broad band X-ray properties of GRO J1948+32/KS 1947+300

We present here results obtained from three BeppoSAX observations of the transient X-ray pulsar GRO J1948+32 carried out during the declining phase of its 2000 November–2001 June outburst. Timing analysis of the data clearly shows a 18.7 s pulsation in the X-ray light curves in 0.1–100 keV energy band. The pulse profile of GRO 1948+32 is characterized by a broad peak with a sharp rise followed by a narrow dip. The dip in the pulse profile shows very strong energy dependence. Phase-averaged spectroscopy obtained with three of the BeppoSAX instruments shows that the 0.1–100 keV energy spectrum is described by a Comptonized component, a weak blackbody component (7% of the total emission) for soft X-rays, a narrow and weak iron emission line at 6.7 keV and low column density of material in the line of sight. The results obtained from the analysis are discussed in this paper.