A broadband look of the Accreting Millisecond X-ray Pulsar SAX J1748.9-2021 using AstroSat and XMM-Newton

Abstract

SAX J1748.9-2021 is a transient accretion powered millisecond X-ray pulsar located in the Globular cluster NGC 6440. We report on the spectral and timing analysis of SAX J1748.9-2021 performed on AstroSat data taken during its faint and short outburst of 2017. We derived the best-fitting orbital solution for the 2017 outburst and obtained an average local spin frequency of 442.361098(3) Hz. The pulse profile obtained from 3-7 keV and 7-20 keV energy bands suggest constant fractional amplitude ~0.5% for fundamental component, contrary to previously observed energy pulse profile dependence. Our AstroSat observations revealed the source to be in a hard spectral state. The 1-50 keV spectrum from SXT and LAXPC on-board AstroSat can be well described with a single temperature blackbody and thermal Comptonization. Moreover, we found that the combined spectra from XMM-Newton (EPIC-PN) and AstroSat (SXT+LAXPC) indicated the presence of reflection features in the form of iron (Fe K$\alpha$) line that we modeled with the reflection model xillvercp. One of the two X-ray burst observed during the AstroSat/LAXPC observation showed hard X-ray emission (>30 keV) due to Compton up-scattering of thermal photons by the hot corona. Time resolved analysis performed on the bursts revealed complex evolution in emission radius of blackbody for second burst suggestive of mild photospheric radius expansion.

9 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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