X-ray and radio polarimetry of the neutron star low mass X-ray binary GX 13+1

2025/08/07 by Unnati Kashyap, Thomas J. Maccarone, Kashyap, Unnati +9 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · Engineering · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Mechanics and Biomechanics Studies #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2508.05763

Abstract

We report the X-ray and radio polarization study of the neutron star (NS) low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) GX 13+1 using the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) and Very Large Array (VLA). Simultaneous Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) observations show that the source was in parts of the Z state during our IXPE observations, exhibiting moderate changes in the hardness intensity diagram. The source exhibits X-ray dips in the light curve along with hints of polarization swings between the dip and non-dip states. The X-ray spectro-polarimetry results suggest a source geometry comprising an accretion disk component representing the softer disk emission, along with a blackbody representing the harder emission from the boundary layer (BL) or a spreading layer (SL). We investigate the geometry of GX 13+1 by considering our X-ray and radio polarization findings.

Citations

• X-ray polarization of Z-type neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries
• X-ray polarization study of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary GX 349+2
• The IXPE View of Neutron Star Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
• The polarization of the boundary layer around weakly magnetized neutron stars in X-ray binaries
• Discovery of a variable energy-dependent X-ray polarization in the accreting neutron star GX 5-1
• Relativistic X-Ray Reflection and Photoionised Absorption in the Neutron-Star Low-Mass X-ray Binary GX 13+1
• CASA, the Common Astronomy Software Applications for Radio Astronomy
• Radio polarimetry as a probe of unresolved jets: the 2013 outburst of XTE J1908+094
• Modelling the behaviour of accretion flows in X-ray binaries

Cited by

• What's the Buzz About GX 13+1? Constraining Coronal Geometry with QUEEN-BEE: A Bayesian Nested Sampling Framework for X-ray Polarization Rotation Analysis

Related

• X-ray polarization study of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary GX 349+2
• First X-ray and radio polarimetry of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary GX 17+2
• X-ray spectro-polarimetry analysis of the weakly magnetized neutron star X-ray binary GX 9+1
• First spectro-polarimetric study of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary GX 9+1
• Discovery of a variable energy-dependent X-ray polarization in the accreting neutron star GX 5-1