Tracing a Z-track in the M31 X-ray Binary RX J0042.6+4115
Astrophysics
2009-11-10 v1
Abstract
Four XMM-Newton observations of the core of M31, spaced at 6 month intervals, show that the brightest point X-ray source, RX J0042.6+4115, has a 0.4-10 keV luminosity of ~5 10^38 erg/s, and exhibits significant variability in intensity and X-ray spectrum over a time scale of ~100 s including hard flares; such behaviour is only observed in Z-sources and transient blackhole binaries in our Galaxy. The lightcurves, X-ray spectra and hardness-intensity data from the four XMM-Newton observations all strongly suggest that it is a Z-source, bringing the total number of known Z-sources to nine.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0309726,
title = {Tracing a Z-track in the M31 X-ray Binary RX J0042.6+4115},
author = {R. Barnard and U. Kolb and J. P. Osborne},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0309726},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in A&A, 6 pages, 5 figures