Is the Lack of Pulsations in Low‐Mass X‐Ray Binaries due to Comptonizing Coronae? | Zendy

E. Göğüş | Zendy; M. A. Alpar | Zendy; M. Gilfanov | Zendy

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Is the Lack of Pulsations in Low‐Mass X‐Ray Binaries due to Comptonizing Coronae?

Author(s) -

E. Göğüş,

M. A. Alpar,

M. Gilfanov

Publication year - 2007

Publication title -

the astrophysical journal

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.376

H-Index - 489

eISSN - 1538-4357

pISSN - 0004-637X

DOI - 10.1086/512028

Subject(s) - neutron star , physics , astrophysics , corona (planetary geology) , low mass , photon , x ray binary , compton scattering , binary number , signal (programming language) , electron , spectral line , astronomy , x ray , radiation , stars , optics , nuclear physics , arithmetic , mathematics , astrobiology , venus , computer science , programming language

The spin periods of the neutron stars in most Low Mass X-ray Binary (LMXB)systems still remain undetected. One of the models to explain the absence ofcoherent pulsations has been the suppression of the beamed signal by Comptonscattering of X-ray photons by electrons in a surrounding corona. We point outthat simultaneously with wiping out the pulsation signal, such a corona willupscatter (pulsating or not) X-ray emission originating at and/or near thesurface of the neutron star leading to appearance of a hard tail of Comptonizedradiation in the source spectrum. We analyze the hard X-ray spectra of aselected set of LMXBs and demonstrate that the optical depth of the corona isnot likely to be large enough to cause the pulsations to disappear.Comment: 11 pages, accepted for publication in Ap

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