A new explanation for the SFXTs outbursts
Abstract
The physical mechanism responsible for the short outbursts in a recently recognized class of High Mass X-ray Binaries, the Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients (SFXTs), is still unknown. Recent observations performed with Swift/XRT, XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL of the 2007 outburst from IGRJ11215-5952, the only SFXT known to exhibit periodic outbursts, suggest a new explanation for the outburst mechanism in this class of transients, linked to the possible presence of a second wind component in the supergiant companion, in the form of an equatorial wind. The applicability of the model to the short outburst durations of all other SFXTs, where a clear periodicity in the outbursts has not been found yet, is discussed. The scenario we are proposing also includes the persistently accreting supergiant High Mass X-ray Binaries.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0712.3160,
title = {A new explanation for the SFXTs outbursts},
author = {L. Sidoli and P. Romano and S. Mereghetti and A. Paizis and S. Vercellone and V. Mangano and D. Goetz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0712.3160},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Contributed talk at the conference "A population explosion: the nature and evolution of X-ray binaries in diverse environments", held in St.Petersburg Beach, Florida (28 October-2 November 2007); R.M.Bandyopadhyay, S.Wachter, D.Gelino, C.R.Gelino, eds