Related papers: Blackbody excess in persistent Be pulsars
We complete our study of pulsars' non-uniform surface temperature and of its effects on their soft X-ray thermal emission. Our previous work had shown that, due to gravitational lensing, dipolar fields cannot reproduce the strong pulsations…
We present photometric observations of the field around the optical counterparts of high-mass X-ray binaries. Our aim is to study the long-term photometric variability in correlation with their X-ray activity and derive a set of secondary…
Most of the spectra of neutron star low mass X-ray binaries (NS LMXBs), being them persistent or transient, are characterized by the presence of a strong thermal Comptonization bump, thought to originate in the transition layer (TL) between…
During five years of Chandra observations, we have identified seven X-ray transients located within 23 pc of Sgr A*. These sources each vary in luminosity by more than a factor of 10, and have peak X-ray luminosities greater than 5e33…
Some ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) exhibit X-ray pulses, and their central sources are thought to be neutron stars. It has also been suggested that some are transient sources with Be-type donors. In this study, we use the mass…
We present a comprehensive spectro-temporal analysis of five ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) with central object likely being a black hole, using archival {\it XMM-Newton} observations. These sources, namely NGC 1313 X-1, NGC 5408 X-1,…
Context. In 1998 the first accreting millisecond pulsar, SAX J1808.4-3658, was discovered and to date 18 systems showing coherent, high frequency (> 100 Hz) pulsations in low mass X-ray binaries are known. Since their discovery, this class…
The fourth transient accreting millisecond pulsar XTE J1807-294 was observed during its February/March 2003 outburst by INTEGRAL, partly simultaneously with the XMM-Newton and RXTE satellites. We present here the first study of the 0.5-200…
Two XMM-Newton observations of the black-hole binary GRS1915+105 were triggered in 2004 (April 17 and 21), during a long "plateau" state of the source. We analyzed the data collected with EPIC-pn in Timing and Burst modes, respectively. No…
This paper reviews some of the recent observational results on stellar mass black hole candidates. Over the last decade, much of the progress in this field has been achieved through the study of transient X--ray binary sources which shine…
Black-hole binaries are important sources through which studying accretion onto compact objects. In the X/gamma-ray domain, these objects show several and complex spectral behaviours and transitions. Based on INTEGRAL observations collected…
We report on a new XMM-Newton observation of NGC 247 from December 2009. The galaxy contains a supersoft, ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) whose spectrum consists of a thermal component with a temperature about 0.1 keV and a power-law tail…
This dissertation elaborates on X-ray polarisation features of astrophysical environments near accreting black holes. Although the work was originally assigned to supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei, the results are also…
In this proof-of-concept study we demonstrate that in a binary system mass can be transferred toward an accreting compact object at extremely high rate. If the transferred mass is efficiently converted to X-ray luminosity (with disregard of…
We present results of an investigation of the physical changes taking place in the emission regions of the LMXB X1624-490 during strong flaring in RXTE observations. Based on the detailed light curve, we propose that the flaring consists of…
This work is devoted to the study of the broadband 0.8-79 keV spectral and timing properties of the poorly studied X-ray pulsar XTE J1859+083 during its 2015 outburst based on the data from the NuSTAR and Swift observatories. We show that…
We report on the spectral analysis of the X-ray pulsar LMC X-4 in its high state out of eclipse observed by BeppoSAX. During this observation no coherent pulsations are detected. The primary continuum is well described by a power law with a…
We report on follow-up observations with XMM-Newton, the FORS2 instrument at the ESO-VLT, and FAST, aiming to characterise the nature of five thermally emitting isolated neutron star (INS) candidates recently discovered from searches in the…
When neutron stars (NS) accrete gas from low-mass binary companions, explosive nuclear burning reactions in the NS envelope fuse hydrogen and helium into heavier elements. The resulting thermonuclear (type-I) X-ray bursts produce energy…
(abridged) Two XMM-Newton observations of the black-hole binary GRS1915+105 were triggered in 2004, during a long "plateau" state of the source. (...) While the light curves show just small amplitude variations (a few percent) at timescales…