Related papers: gamma Cassiopeiae: an X-ray Be star with personali…
The surface of hot neutron stars is covered by a thin atmosphere. If there is accretion after neutron star formation, the atmosphere could be composed of light elements (H or He); if no accretion takes place or if thermonuclear reactions…
The Halpha emission of a set of southern gamma-Cas stars was monitored since 2019, with the aim of detecting transition events and examining how their peculiar X-ray emission would react in such cases. Two stars, HD119682 and V767Cen, were…
Steep soft X-ray (0.1-2 keV) quasars share several unusual properties: narrow Balmer lines, strong FeII emission, large and fast X-ray variability, rather steep 2-10 keV spectrum. These intriguing objects have been suggested to be the…
The gamma-Cas category is a subgroup of Be stars displaying a strong, hard, and variable thermal X-ray emission. An XMM-Newton observation of pi Aqr reveals spectral and temporal characteristics that clearly make this Be star another member…
The Central Compact Object (CCO) in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant is most likely a very young ($\approx 300$ yr) neutron star. If a previously reported decrease of its surface temperature by 4% in 10 years could be confirmed, it would…
Cas A is a Galactic supernova remnant whose supernova explosion is observed to be of Type IIb from spectroscopy of its light echo. Having its SN type known, observational constraints on the mass-loss history of Cas A's progenitor can…
We present an analysis of a pointed 141 ks Chandra high resolution transmission gratings observation of the Be X-ray emitting star HD110432, a prominent member of the gamma Cas analogs. The Chandra lightcurve shows a high variability but…
A growing number of Be and Oe stars, named the gamma Cas stars, are known for their unusually hard and intense X-ray emission. This emission could either trace accretion by a compact companion or magnetic interaction between the star and…
High-resolution X-ray spectra of $\pi\,$Aqr, a $\gamma\,$Cas-type star, obtained with the Chandra/HETG grating spectrometer, revealed emission lines of H-like ions of Mg, Si, S, and Fe, a strong, hard continuum, and a lack of He-like ions,…
In the last years, a peculiarity of some Be stars - their association with unusually hard and intense X-ray emission - was shown to extend beyond a mere few cases. In this paper, we continue our search for new cases by performing a limited…
The results from an X-ray spectral analysis of a large sample of quasars, observed with ASCA, are presented. Data reduction leaves 62 quasars, 35 radio-loud and 27 radio-quiet, suitable for spectral analysis. Differences are found between…
The central pointlike X-ray source of the Cas A supernova remnant was discovered in the Chandra First Light Observation and found later in the archival ROSAT and Einstein images. The analysis of these data does not show statistically…
gamma-Cas stars constitute a subgroup of Be stars showing unusually hard and bright X-ray emission. In search for additional peculiarities, we analyzed the TESS lightcurves of 15 gamma-Cas analogs. Their periodograms display broad frequency…
(Abridged abstract) We present an analysis of the X-ray emission of the rapidly rotating giant star YY Mensae observed by Chandra HETGS and XMM-Newton. Although no obvious flare was detected, the X-ray luminosity changed by a factor of two…
The Galactic background radiation near the Scutum Arm was observed simultaneously with RXTE and OSSE in order to determine the spectral shape and the origin of the emission in the hard X-ray/soft gamma-ray band. The spectrum in the 3 keV to…
Gamma Cas analog sources are a subset of Be stars that emit intense and hard X-ray emission. Two competing ideas for their X-ray production mechanism are (a) the magnetic activities of the Be star and its disk and (b) the accretion from the…
In order to test the O star wind-shock scenario for X-ray production in less luminous stars with weaker winds, we made a pointed 74 ks observation of the nearby early B giant, beta Cru (B0.5 III), with the Chandra HETGS. We find that the…
Over the last 3 yrs, the Galactic center (GC) region has been monitored with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. With 11 Chandra observations through 2002 June, the total effective exposure reaches ~590 ks, providing significant photon…
To help constrain the origin of the peculiar X-ray emission of gamma Cas stars, we conducted a simultaneous optical and X-ray monitoring of pi Aqr in 2018. At that time, the star appeared optically bright and active, with a very strong…
The observed anomalous steady decrease in surface temperature of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), which was reported about ten years ago, has generated much debate. Several exotic cooling scenarios have been proposed using…