paper

The complications of learning from Super Soft Source X-ray spectra

arXiv:1909.09711 · doi:10.1016/j.asr.2019.09.002

Abstract

Super Soft X-ray Sources (SSS) are powered by nuclear burning on the surface of an accreting white dwarf, they are seen around 0.1-1 keV (thus in the soft X-ray regime), depending on effective temperature and the amount of intervening interstellar neutral hydrogen N_H. The most realistic model to derive physical parameters from observed SSS spectra would be an atmosphere model that simulates the radiation transport processes. However, observed SSS high-resolution grating spectra reveal highly complex details that cast doubts on the feasibility of achieving unique results from atmosphere modeling. In this article, I discuss two independent atmosphere model analyses of the same data set, leading to different results. I then show some of the details that complicate the analysis and conclude that we need to approach the interpretation of high-resolution SSS spectra differently. We need to focus more on the data than the models and to use more phenomenological approaches as is traditionally done with optical spectra.

Accepted in JASR. 7 pages, 6 figure

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