English

The very-faint X-ray binary IGR J17062-6143: a truncated disk, no pulsations and a possible outflow

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2017-12-12 v1

Abstract

We present a comprehensive X-ray study of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary IGR J17062-6143, which has been accreting at low luminosities since its discovery in 20062006. Analysing NuSTAR, XMM-Newton and Swift observations, we investigate the very faint nature of this source through three approaches: modelling the relativistic reflection spectrum to constrain the accretion geometry, performing high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy to search for an outflow, and searching for the recently reported millisecond X-ray pulsations. We find a strongly truncated accretion disk at 7718+2277^{+22}_{-18} gravitational radii (164\sim 164 km) assuming a high inclination, although a low inclination and a disk extending to the neutron star cannot be excluded. The high-resolution spectroscopy reveals evidence for oxygen-rich circumbinary material, possibly resulting from a blueshifted, collisionally-ionised outflow. Finally, we do not detect any pulsations. We discuss these results in the broader context of possible explanations for the persistent faint nature of weakly accreting neutron stars. The results are consistent with both an ultra-compact binary orbit and a magnetically truncated accretion flow, although both cannot be unambigiously inferred. We also discuss the nature of the donor star and conclude that it is likely a CO or O-Ne-Mg white dwarf, consistent with recent multi-wavelength modelling.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1712.03949,
  title  = {The very-faint X-ray binary IGR J17062-6143: a truncated disk, no pulsations and a possible outflow},
  author = {J. van den Eijnden and N. Degenaar and C. Pinto and A. Patruno and K. Wette and C. Messenger and J. V. Hernandez Santisteban and R. Wijnands and J. M. Miller and D. Altamirano and F. Paerels and D. Chakrabarty and A. C. Fabian},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1712.03949},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

22 pages, 9 figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS