XMM-Newton discovery of very high obscuration in the candidate Supergiant Fast X-ray Transient AX J1714.1-3912

Abstract

We have analysed an archival XMM-Newton EPIC observation that serendipitously covered the sky position of a variable X-ray source AX J1714.1-3912, previously suggested to be a Supergiant Fast X-ray Transient (SFXT). During the XMM-Newton observation the source is variable on a timescale of hundred seconds and shows two luminosity states, with a flaring activity followed by unflared emission, with a variability amplitude of a factor of about 50. We have discovered an intense iron emission line with a centroid energy of 6.4 keV in the power law-like spectrum, modified by a large absorption (NH around 1e24 cm-2), never observed before from this source. This X-ray spectrum is unusual for an SFXT, but resembles the so-called "highly obscured sources", high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) hosting an evolved B[e] supergiant companion (sgB[e]). This might suggest that AX J1714.1-3912 is a new member of this rare type of HMXBs, which includes IGR J16318-4848 and CI Camelopardalis. Increasing this small population of sources would be remarkable, as they represent an interesting short transition evolutionary stage in the evolution of massive binaries. Nevertheless, AX J1714.1-3912 appears to share X-ray properties of both kinds of HMXBs (SFXT vs sgB[e] HMXB). Therefore, further investigations of the companion star are needed to disentangle the two hypothesis.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (31)

• The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-orbit Performance
• The Gaia mission
• On the Absorption of X-rays in the Interstellar Medium
• The Spitzer Space Telescope Mission
• The European Photon Imaging Camera on XMM-Newton: The MOS Cameras
• Atomic Data for Astrophysics. II. New Analytic Fits for Photoionization Cross Sections of Atoms and Ions
• HI4PI: A full-sky HI survey based on EBHIS and GASS
• GLIMPSE: I. A SIRTF Legacy Project to Map the Inner Galaxy
• Spectral Energy Distributions of Hard X-ray selected AGNs in the XMDS Survey
• An XMM-Newton survey of broad iron lines in Seyfert galaxies
• X-ray obscuration and obscured AGN in the local universe
• X-Ray Emission From the Shell-Type SNR G347.3-0.5
• Discovery of Non Thermal X-Rays from the Northwest Shell of the New SNR RX J1713.7-3946: The Second SN1006 ?
• Unveiling supergiant fast X-ray transient sources with INTEGRAL
• INTEGRAL observations of recurrent fast X-ray transient sources
• Towards a unified view of inhomogeneous stellar winds in isolated supergiant stars and supergiant high mass X-ray binaries
• The IBIS soft gamma-ray sky after 1000 INTEGRAL orbits
• INTEGRAL discovery of a bright highly obscured galactic X-ray binary source IGR J16318-4848
• Advances in Understanding High-Mass X-ray Binaries with INTEGRAL and Future Directions
• An INTEGRAL overview of High Mass X-ray Binaries: classes or transitions?
• Composite Spectral Energy Distributions and Infrared-Optical Colors of Type 1 and Type 2 Quasars
• XMM-Newton observations of IGRJ18410-0535: The ingestion of a clump by a supergiant fast X-ray transient
• On the nature of XTE J0421+560/CI Cam
• Flat Spectrum X-ray Emission from the Direction of a Molecular Cloud Associated with SNR RX J1713.7-3946
• A multi-wavelength study of SXP 1062, the long period X-ray pulsar associated with a supernova remnant
• The XMM-Newton/INTEGRAL monitoring campaign of IGR J16318-4848
• Timing and Spectral Analysis of the Unusual X-Ray Transient XTE J0421+560/CI Camelopardalis
• CI Camelopardalis: The first sgB[e]-High Mass X-ray Binary Twenty Years on, a Supernova Imposter in our own Galaxy?
• Spectral variation in the supergiant fast X-ray transient SAX J1818.6-1703 observed by XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL
• Detection of X-ray flares from AX J1714.1-3912, the unidentified source near RX J1713.7-3946
• The dark side of supergiant High-Mass X-ray Binaries

Cited by in corpus (4)

• A catalogue of high-mass X-ray binaries in the Galaxy: from the INTEGRAL to the Gaia era
• Discovery of a new supergiant fast X-ray transient MAXI J0709-159 associated with the Be star LY CMa
• Full-frame data reduction method: a data mining tool to detect the potential variations in optical photometry
• 4XMM J181330.1-175110: a new supergiant fast X-ray transient