Variability in high-mass X-ray binaries
arXiv:1904.03628 · doi:10.1002/asna.201913618
Abstract
Strongly magnetized, accreting neutron stars show periodic and aperiodic variability over a wide range of time scales. By obtaining spectral and timing information on these different time scales, we can have a closer look into the physics of accretion close to the neutron star and the properties of the accreted material. One of the most prominent time scales is the strong pulsation, i.e., the rotation period of the neutron star itself. Over one rotation, our view of the accretion column and the X-ray producing region changes significantly. This allows us to sample different physical conditions within the column but at the same time requires that we have viewing-angle-resolved models to properly describe them. In wind-fed high-mass X-ray binaries, the main source of aperiodic variability is the clumpy stellar wind, which leads to changes in the accretion rate (i.e., luminosity) as well as absorption column. This variability allows us to study the behavior of the accretion column as a function of luminosity, as well as to investigate the structure and physical properties of the wind, which we can compare to winds in isolated stars.
6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomische Nachrichten (proceedings of the XMM-Newton Workshop 2019)
References in corpus (46)
- An Ultraluminous X-ray Source Powered by An Accreting Neutron Star
- Thermal and Bulk Comptonization in Accretion-Powered X-Ray Pulsars
- A mass of less than 15 solar masses for the black hole in an ultraluminous X-ray source
- High-Mass X-ray Binaries in the Milky Way: A closer look with INTEGRAL
- On the maximum accretion luminosity of magnetized neutron stars: connecting X-ray pulsars and ultraluminous X-ray sources
- The ephemeris, orbital decay, and masses of 10 eclipsing HMXBs
- Probing clumpy stellar winds with a neutron star
- Towards a unified view of inhomogeneous stellar winds in isolated supergiant stars and supergiant high mass X-ray binaries
- High variability in Vela X-1: giant flares and off states
- Two Populations of X-ray Pulsars Produced by Two Types of Supernovae
- Clumped stellar winds in supergiant high-mass X-ray binaries: X-ray variability and photoionization
- Living on a Flare: Relativistic Reflection in V404 Cyg Observed by NuSTAR During its Summer 2015 Outburst
- X-ray variation statistics and wind clumping in Vela X-1
- Pulse-amplitude-resolved spectroscopy of bright accreting pulsars: indication of two accretion regimes
- Spectral Changes in the Hyperluminous Pulsar in NGC 5907 as a Function of Super-Orbital Phase
- The structure of blue supergiant winds and the accretion in supergiant High Mass X-ray Binaries
- On the dependence of the X-ray continuum variations with luminosity in accreting X-ray pulsars
- Superorbital Periodic Modulation in Wind-Accretion High-Mass X-ray Binaries from Swift BAT Observations
- A tale of two periods: determination of the orbital ephemeris of the super-Eddington pulsar NGC 7793 P13
- Accretion form a clumpy massive-star wind in Supergiant X-ray binaries
- Stellar Wind Accretion in GX301-2: Evidence for a High-density Stream
- Spectral Formation in X-Ray Pulsars: Bulk Comptonization in the Accretion Shock
- Lense-Thirring precession in ULXs as a possible means to constrain the neutron star equation-of-state
- Cyclotron resonant scattering feature simulations. I. Thermally averaged cyclotron scattering cross sections, mean free photon-path tables, and electron momentum sampling
- Cyclotron resonant scattering feature simulations. II. Description of the CRSF simulation process
- The clumpy absorber in the high-mass X-ray binary Vela X-1
- Study of the many fluorescent lines and the absorption variability in GX 301-2 with XMM-Newton
- NuSTAR Discovery of a cyclotron line in KS 1947+300
- The NuSTAR X-ray Spectrum of Hercules X-1: A Radiation-Dominated Radiative Shock
- Cumulative luminosity distributions of Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients in hard X-rays
- Origin of the X-ray off-states in Vela X-1
- Neutron star masses from hydrodynamical effects in obscured sgHMXBs
- The X-ray binary 2S0114+650=LSI+65 010:A slow pulsar or tidally-induced pulsations?
- Pulse-phase spectroscopy of SMC X-1 with Chandra and XMM-Newton: reprocessing by a precessing disk?
- Multiple cyclotron line-forming regions in GX 301-2
- Spectral Formation in X-Ray Pulsar Accretion Columns
- Pulse profiles of highly compact pulsars in general relativity
- Probing the stellar wind environment of Vela X-1 with MAXI
- Discovery of a Peculiar Dip from GX 301-2
- The Transient Accereting X-Ray Pulsar XTE J1946+274: Stability of the X-Ray Properties at Low Flux and Updated Orbital Solution
- Studying the accretion geometry of EXO 2030+375 at luminosities close to the propeller regime
- X-ray Variability from the Ultraluminous Black Hole Candidate X-ray Binary in the Globular Cluster RZ 2109
- Glancing through the accretion column of EXO 2030+375
- On the super-orbital modulation of supergiant high mass X-ray binaries
- Discovery of pulsation dropout and turn-on during the high state of the accreting X-ray pulsar LMC X-4
- A precessing Be disk as a possible model for occultation events in GX 304-1