Insight-HXMT observations on thermonuclear X-ray bursts from 4U~1608--52 in 2022: the accretion rate dependent anisotropy of burst emission

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Main Authors: Chen, Yu-Peng, Zhang, Shu, Ji, Long, Zhang, Shuang-Nan, Wang, Peng-Ju, Kong, Ling-Da, Chang, Zhi, Peng, Jing-Qiang, Shui, Qing-Cang, Li, Jian, Tao, Lian, Ge, Ming-Yu, Qu, Jin-Lu
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Published: 2025
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author Chen, Yu-Peng
Zhang, Shu
Ji, Long
Zhang, Shuang-Nan
Wang, Peng-Ju
Kong, Ling-Da
Chang, Zhi
Peng, Jing-Qiang
Shui, Qing-Cang
Li, Jian
Tao, Lian
Ge, Ming-Yu
Qu, Jin-Lu
author_facet Chen, Yu-Peng
Zhang, Shu
Ji, Long
Zhang, Shuang-Nan
Wang, Peng-Ju
Kong, Ling-Da
Chang, Zhi
Peng, Jing-Qiang
Shui, Qing-Cang
Li, Jian
Tao, Lian
Ge, Ming-Yu
Qu, Jin-Lu
contents Thermonuclear X-ray bursts occur on the surface of an accreting neutron star (NS), and their characteristics and interplay with the surrounding circumstance could be a clue to understand the nature of the NS and accretion process. For this purpose, Insight-HXMT has performed high cadence observations on the bright thermonuclear X-ray burster--4U~1608--52 during its outburst in July and August 2022; nine bursts were detected, including seven bursts with the photospheric radius expansion (PRE). Time-resolved spectroscopy of the bright PRE bursts reveals that an enhancement of accretion rate or the Comptonization of the burst emission by the corona could reduce the residuals when fitting their spectra with the conventional model--blackbody. The inferred energy increment rate of the burst photon gained from the corona is up to $\sim$40\%, even though the bursts have different peak fluxes and locate at different accretion rates. Moreover, the flux shortage of the rising PRE is observed in the bursts at a high mass accretion rate, but not for the burst with a faint persistent emission, which has been predicted theoretically but first observed in this work. If the flux shortage is due to the disk obscuration, i.e., the burst emission is anisotropic, the phenomenon above could indicate that the anisotropy of the burst emission is accretion rate dependent, which could also be evidence of the truncated disk in the low/hard state.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_19827
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Insight-HXMT observations on thermonuclear X-ray bursts from 4U~1608--52 in 2022: the accretion rate dependent anisotropy of burst emission
Chen, Yu-Peng
Zhang, Shu
Ji, Long
Zhang, Shuang-Nan
Wang, Peng-Ju
Kong, Ling-Da
Chang, Zhi
Peng, Jing-Qiang
Shui, Qing-Cang
Li, Jian
Tao, Lian
Ge, Ming-Yu
Qu, Jin-Lu
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Thermonuclear X-ray bursts occur on the surface of an accreting neutron star (NS), and their characteristics and interplay with the surrounding circumstance could be a clue to understand the nature of the NS and accretion process. For this purpose, Insight-HXMT has performed high cadence observations on the bright thermonuclear X-ray burster--4U~1608--52 during its outburst in July and August 2022; nine bursts were detected, including seven bursts with the photospheric radius expansion (PRE). Time-resolved spectroscopy of the bright PRE bursts reveals that an enhancement of accretion rate or the Comptonization of the burst emission by the corona could reduce the residuals when fitting their spectra with the conventional model--blackbody. The inferred energy increment rate of the burst photon gained from the corona is up to $\sim$40\%, even though the bursts have different peak fluxes and locate at different accretion rates. Moreover, the flux shortage of the rising PRE is observed in the bursts at a high mass accretion rate, but not for the burst with a faint persistent emission, which has been predicted theoretically but first observed in this work. If the flux shortage is due to the disk obscuration, i.e., the burst emission is anisotropic, the phenomenon above could indicate that the anisotropy of the burst emission is accretion rate dependent, which could also be evidence of the truncated disk in the low/hard state.
title Insight-HXMT observations on thermonuclear X-ray bursts from 4U~1608--52 in 2022: the accretion rate dependent anisotropy of burst emission
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.19827