NuSTAR and Swift joint view of neutron star X-ray binary 4U~1728--34 : Disc reflection in the island and lower banana states

Abstract

We analyze two simultaneous \nustar{} and \swift{} data of the Atoll type neutron star (NS) X-ray binary 4U~1728--34 observed on 1 and 3 October, 2013. Based on power density spectra, hardness ratio and colour-colour diagram, we infer that the first and second observations belong to the island state and lower banana state, respectively. During island state, a low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillation (LFQPO) at $\sim 4.53$ Hz is observed along with four type-I X-ray bursts ($\sim 10-15$ s duration each). The X-ray luminosity of the source during the island and lower banana states are found to be $L_X=1.1$ and $1.6\times 10^{37}$ erg s${}^{-1}$, respectively which correspond to $\sim 6\%$ and $\sim 9\%$ of the Eddington luminosity. The combined burst spectrum is well represented by a blackbody with a characteristic temperature of $2.22\pm0.05\kev$ and the blackbody radius of $9.87\pm 1.86$ km which is consistent with the typical radius of the neutron star. The persistent energy spectra from both observations in the energy band $1-79\kev$ are well described with thermal emission from the NS surface ($kT_{bb}\simeq1-2.5\kev$), Comptonized emission of thermal seed photons from the hot boundary layer/corona and the strong reflection component from the accretion disc. We detect a broad Iron line in the $5-8 \kev$ band and reflection hump in the $15-30 \kev$ band. These features are well modelled by the {\tt relxill} reflection model. From joint spectral fitting, we constrain the inclination angle of the binary system and inner disc radius to be $22°-40°$ and $(2.8-4.3)\times R_{ISCO}$, respectively. From inner disc radius, we estimate the magnetic field to be $(3.3-6.5)\times 10^8$ Gauss.

13 pages, 8 figures, 3 Tables, Submitted to MNRAS