4.7 Article

X-RAY OBSERVATIONS OF XSS J12270-4859 IN A NEW LOW STATE: A TRANSFORMATION TO A DISK-FREE ROTATION-POWERED PULSAR BINARY

Journal

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 789, Issue 1, Pages -

Publisher

IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/789/1/40

Keywords

pulsars: general; pulsars: individual (XSS J12270-4859); stars: neutron; X-rays: binaries

Funding

  1. NWO
  2. ERC Advanced Grant LEAP [227947]
  3. NWO Vidi grants
  4. ERC Starting Grant DRAGNET [337062]
  5. ESA member states
  6. NASA
  7. STFC [ST/L000768/1] Funding Source: UKRI
  8. Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/L000768/1] Funding Source: researchfish

Ask authors/readers for more resources

We present XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of the low-mass X-ray binary XSS J12270-4859, which experienced a dramatic decline in optical/ X-ray brightness at the end of 2012, indicative of the disappearance of its accretion disk. In this new state, the system exhibits previously absent orbital-phase-dependent, large-amplitude X-ray modulations with a decline in flux at superior conjunction. The X-ray emission remains predominantly non-thermal but with an order of magnitude lower mean luminosity and significantly harder spectrum relative to the previous high flux state. This phenomenology is identical to the behavior of the radio millisecond pulsar (MSP) binary PSR J1023+0038 in the absence of an accretion disk, where the X-ray emission is produced in an intra-binary shock driven by the pulsar wind. This further demonstrates that XSS J12270-4859 no longer has an accretion disk and has transformed to a full-fledged eclipsing redback system that hosts an active rotation-powered MSP. There is no evidence for diffuse X-ray emission associated with the binary that may arise due to outflows or a wind nebula. An extended source situated 1'.5 from XSS J12270-4859 is unlikely to be associated, and is probably a previously uncataloged galaxy cluster.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available