Detection of the orbital modulation of Fe K$α$ fluorescence emission in Centaurus X-3 using the high-resolution spectrometer Resolve onboard XRISM

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mochizuki, Yuto, Tsujimoto, Masahiro, Kelley, Richard L., Meulen, Bert Vander, Enoto, Teruaki, Nagai, Yutaro, Done, Chris, Pradhan, Pragati, Hell, Natalie, Pottschmidt, Katja, Ebisawa, Ken, Behar, Ehud
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915347439812608
author Mochizuki, Yuto
Tsujimoto, Masahiro
Kelley, Richard L.
Meulen, Bert Vander
Enoto, Teruaki
Nagai, Yutaro
Done, Chris
Pradhan, Pragati
Hell, Natalie
Pottschmidt, Katja
Ebisawa, Ken
Behar, Ehud
author_facet Mochizuki, Yuto
Tsujimoto, Masahiro
Kelley, Richard L.
Meulen, Bert Vander
Enoto, Teruaki
Nagai, Yutaro
Done, Chris
Pradhan, Pragati
Hell, Natalie
Pottschmidt, Katja
Ebisawa, Ken
Behar, Ehud
contents The Fe K$α$ fluorescence line emission in X-ray spectra is a powerful diagnostic tool for various astrophysical objects to reveal the distribution of cold matter around photo-ionizing sources. The advent of the X-ray microcalorimeter onboard the \textit{XRISM} satellite will bring new constraints on the emission line. We present one of the first such results for the high-mass X-ray binary Centaurus X-3, which is composed of an O-type star and a neutron star (NS). We conducted a 155 ks observation covering an entire binary orbit. A weak Fe K$α$ line was detected in all orbital phases at an equivalent width (EW) of 10--20 eV. We found for the first time that its radial velocity (RV) is sinusoidally modulated by the orbital phase. The RV amplitude is 248 $\pm$ 13 km s$^{-1}$, which is significantly smaller than the value (391 km s$^{-1}$) expected if the emission is from the NS surface, but is consistent if the emission takes place at the O star surface. We discuss several possibilities of the line production site, including the NS surface, O star surface, O star wind, and accretion stream from the O star to the NS. We ran radiative transfer calculation for some of them assuming spherically-symmetric density and velocity profiles and an isotropic distribution of X-ray emission from the NS. None of them explains the observed EW and velocity dispersion dependence on the orbital phase, suggesting that more elaborated modeling is needed. In other words, the present observational results have capability to constrain deviations from these assumptions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_12978
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Detection of the orbital modulation of Fe K$α$ fluorescence emission in Centaurus X-3 using the high-resolution spectrometer Resolve onboard XRISM
Mochizuki, Yuto
Tsujimoto, Masahiro
Kelley, Richard L.
Meulen, Bert Vander
Enoto, Teruaki
Nagai, Yutaro
Done, Chris
Pradhan, Pragati
Hell, Natalie
Pottschmidt, Katja
Ebisawa, Ken
Behar, Ehud
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
The Fe K$α$ fluorescence line emission in X-ray spectra is a powerful diagnostic tool for various astrophysical objects to reveal the distribution of cold matter around photo-ionizing sources. The advent of the X-ray microcalorimeter onboard the \textit{XRISM} satellite will bring new constraints on the emission line. We present one of the first such results for the high-mass X-ray binary Centaurus X-3, which is composed of an O-type star and a neutron star (NS). We conducted a 155 ks observation covering an entire binary orbit. A weak Fe K$α$ line was detected in all orbital phases at an equivalent width (EW) of 10--20 eV. We found for the first time that its radial velocity (RV) is sinusoidally modulated by the orbital phase. The RV amplitude is 248 $\pm$ 13 km s$^{-1}$, which is significantly smaller than the value (391 km s$^{-1}$) expected if the emission is from the NS surface, but is consistent if the emission takes place at the O star surface. We discuss several possibilities of the line production site, including the NS surface, O star surface, O star wind, and accretion stream from the O star to the NS. We ran radiative transfer calculation for some of them assuming spherically-symmetric density and velocity profiles and an isotropic distribution of X-ray emission from the NS. None of them explains the observed EW and velocity dispersion dependence on the orbital phase, suggesting that more elaborated modeling is needed. In other words, the present observational results have capability to constrain deviations from these assumptions.
title Detection of the orbital modulation of Fe K$α$ fluorescence emission in Centaurus X-3 using the high-resolution spectrometer Resolve onboard XRISM
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.12978