Related papers: Advances in Understanding High-Mass X-ray Binaries…
Very high energy gamma-rays probe the long-standing mystery of the origin of cosmic rays. Produced in the interactions of accelerated particles in astrophysical objects, they can be used to image cosmic particle accelerators. A first…
The majority of all stars are members of a binary system. The evolution of such binary stars and their subsequent production of pairs of compact objects in tight orbits, such as double neutron stars and double black holes, play a central…
A new type of sources has been discovered by INTEGRAL. These sources are in the course of being unveiled by means of multi-wavelength optical, near- and mid-infrared observations. Among the high-energy binary sources, two distinct classes…
Context. One of the most striking discoveries of the INTEGRAL observatory is the existence of a previously unknown population of X-ray sources in the inner arms of the Galaxy. The investigations of the optical/NIR counterparts of some of…
Supergiant high mass X-ray binaries (SGXBs) are believed to be rare objects, as stars in the supergiant phase have a very short lifetime and to date only about a dozen of them have been discovered. They are known to be persistent and bright…
The pulsations of X-ray pulsars carry information about the accretion and magnetic field geometry. Here we present a study and classification of energy resolved pulse profiles of a sample of X-ray pulsars, focusing on high-mass X-ray…
The Galactic bulge region is a rich host of variable high-energy point sources. Since 2005, February 17 we are monitoring the source activity in this region about every three days with INTEGRAL. Thanks to the large field of view, the…
The SMC represents an exciting opportunity to observe the direct results of tidal interactions on star birth. One of the best indicators of recent star birth activity is the presence of signicant numbers of High-Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXBs)…
Be/X-ray binaries are the most numerous class of X-ray binaries. They constitute an excellent tracer of star formation and can be used to study several aspects of astrophysics, from mass loss in massive stars to binary evolution. This short…
Today's sensistive, high resolution Chandra X-ray observations allow the study of many populations of X-ray sources. The traditional astronomical tools of photometric diagrams and luminosity functions are now applied to these populations,…
The X-ray spectra of X-ray binaries are dominated by emission of either soft or hard X-rays which defines their soft and hard spectral states. Cygnus X-3 is amongst the list of X-ray binaries that show quite complex behavior, with various…
We report on the results of the multiwavelength campaign carried out after the discovery of the INTEGRAL transient IGR J17329-2731. The optical data collected with the SOAR telescope allowed us to identify the donor star in this system as a…
High-mass X-ray binary systems are powered by the stellar wind of their donor stars. The X-ray state of Cygnus X-1 is correlated with the properties of the wind which defines the environment of mass accretion. Chandra-HETGS observations…
A large fraction of X-ray sources in our Galaxy are low-mass X-ray binaries, containing a black hole or a neutron star accreting from a gravitationally bound low-mass ($\leq$1 M$_\odot$) companion star. These systems are among the older…
Thanks to the INTEGRAL satellite the way of looking at the hard X-ray sky above 20 keV has changed substantially. Through the unique imaging and spectroscopy capabilities of the IBIS instrument that has formed the basis of the INTEGRAL…
The X-ray source IGR J16318-4848 was the first source discovered by INTEGRAL on 2003, January 29. The high energy spectrum exhibits such a high column density that the source is undetectable in X-rays below 2 keV. On 2003, February, 23--25…
The Chandra X-ray Observatory has completed a remarkable twenty years in orbit. A large part of the science program of Chandra during this time has involved the study of stars and their planetary systems. This primer aims to give the reader…
As of 2014 August, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) had observed ~30 X-ray binaries either as part of the planned program, as targets of opportunity, or for instrument calibration. The main science goals for the…
The INTEGRAL mission has played a major role in blazar science, thanks to its sensitive coverage of a spectral region (3-100 keV) that is critical for this type of sources, to its flexibility of scheduling and to the large field of view of…
We present a short overview of the properties of faint Galactic X-ray binaries. We place emphasis on current classification scenarios. One of the important parameters for the faint sources is their intrinsic luminosity. In the case of…