Dust-scattering halo and giant hard X-ray flare from the Supergiant Fast X-ray Transient IGR J16479-4514 investigated with XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL

Abstract

We report results from the analysis of XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL data of IGR J16479-4514. The unpublished XMM-Newton observation, performed in 2012, occurred during the source eclipse. No point-like X-ray emission was detected from the source, conversely extended X-ray emission was clearly detected up to a size distance compatible with a dust scattering halo produced by the source X-ray emission before being eclipsed by its companion donor star. The diffuse emission of the dust-scattering halo could be observed without any contamination from the central point X-ray source, compared to a previous XMM-Newton observation published in 2008. Our comprehensive analysis of the 2012 unpublished spectrum of the diffuse emission as well as of the 2008 re-analysed spectra extracted from three adjacent time intervals and different extraction regions (optimized for point-like and extended emission) allowed us to clearly disentangle the scattering halo spectrum from the residual point-like emission during the 2008 eclipse. Moreover, the point-like emission detected in 2008 could be separated into two components attributed to the direct emission from the source and to scattering in the stellar wind, respectively. From archival unpublished INTEGRAL data, we identified a very strong (3$\times$10${}^{-8}$ erg cm${}^{-2}$ s${}^{-1}$) and fast (25 minutes duration) flare which was classified as giant hard X-ray flare since the measured peak-luminosity is 7$\times$10${}^{37}$ erg s${}^{-1}$. Giant X-ray flares from SFXTs are very rare, to date only one has been reported from a different source. We propose a physical scenario to explain the origin in the case of IGR J16479-4514.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication on The Astrophysical Journal (received 20-Apr-2020, accepted 27-Jul-2020)

References in corpus (31)

• The European Photon Imaging Camera on XMM-Newton: The MOS Cameras
• ISGRI: the INTEGRAL Soft Gamma-Ray Imager
• Calibration of X-ray absorption in our Galaxy
• Mass loss from hot massive stars
• The Swift/BAT Hard X-ray Transient Monitor
• Scattering by Interstellar Dust Grains. II. X-Rays
• Hydrodynamical Simulations of Corotating Interaction Regions and Discrete Absorption Components in Rotating O-Star Winds
• Theory of quasi-spherical accretion in X-ray pulsars
• Unveiling supergiant fast X-ray transient sources with INTEGRAL
• INTEGRAL observations of recurrent fast X-ray transient sources
• Probing clumpy stellar winds with a neutron star
• Multi-wavelength observations of Galactic hard X-ray sources discovered by INTEGRAL. I. The nature of the companion star
• Unveiling the nature of six HMXBs through IR spectroscopy
• Bright Flares in Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients
• A strong and broad iron line in the XMM-Newton spectrum of the new X-ray transient and black-hole candidate XTE J1652-453
• Superorbital Periodic Modulation in Wind-Accretion High-Mass X-ray Binaries from Swift BAT Observations
• An INTEGRAL overview of High Mass X-ray Binaries: classes or transitions?
• Giant outburst from the supergiant fast X-ray transient IGR J17544-2619: accretion from a transient disc?
• On the nature of `off' states in slowly rotating low-luminosity X-ray pulsars
• Discovery of a short orbital period in the Supergiant Fast X-ray Transient IGR J16479-4514
• Monitoring Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients with Swift. Rise to the outburst in IGR J16479-4514
• IGRJ16479-4514: the first eclipsing supergiant fast X-ray transient?
• INTEGRAL and Swift/XRT observations of the SFXT IGR J16479-4514: from quiescence to fast flaring activity
• An Ultra-Fast X-ray Disk Wind in the Neutron Star Binary GX 340+0
• A Suzaku X-ray observation of one orbit of the supergiant fast X-ray transient IGR J16479-4514
• Probing the Masses and Radii of Donor Stars in Eclipsing X-ray Binaries with the Swift Burst Alert Telescope
• On the Origin of Wind Line Variability in O Stars
• Behind the dust curtain: the spectacular case of GRB 160623A
• Swift observations of IGRJ16479-4514 in outburst
• On the super-orbital modulation of supergiant high mass X-ray binaries
• A Study of the 20 Day Superorbital Modulation in the High-Mass X-ray Binary IGR J16493-4348

Cited by in corpus (3)

• X-ray radiative transfer in full 3D with SKIRT
• An XMM-Newton study of active-inactive galaxy pairs
• Investigating the superorbital modulations in 4U 1909+07, IGR J16418-4532 and IGR J16479-4514 with Swift XRT, BAT and NuSTAR observations