The X-ray Spectrum of the Rapid Burster using the Chandra HETGS
Abstract
We present observations of the Rapid Burster (RB, also known as MXB 1730-335) using the Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer. The average interval between type II (accretion) bursts was about 40 s. There was one type I (thermonuclear flash) burst and about 20 "mini-bursts" which are probably type II bursts whose peak flux is 10-40% of the average peak flux of the other type II bursts. The time averaged spectra of the type II bursts are well fit by a blackbody with a temperature of kT = 1.6 keV, a radius of 8.9 km for a distance of 8.6 kpc, and an interstellar column density of 1.7e22 per sq. cm. No narrow emission or absorption lines were clearly detected. The 3 sigma upper limits to the equivalent widths of any features are < 10 eV in the 1.1-7.0 keV band and as small as 1.5 eV near 1.7 keV. We suggest that Comptonization destroys absorption features such as the resonance line of Fe XXVI.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0103203,
title = {The X-ray Spectrum of the Rapid Burster using the Chandra HETGS},
author = {H. L. Marshall and R. Rutledge and D. W. Fox and J. M. Miller and R. Guerriero and E. Morgan and M. van der Klis and L. Bildsten and T. Dotani and W. H. G. Lewin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0103203},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
10 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in AJ (with minor changes and enhanced discussion of the instrument configuration)