2004/02/29 by S. C. Inam, SıtkıÇağdaş İnam, A. Baykal +3 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/424825
published as Astrophys.J. 616 (2004) 463-468 · 16 pages 4 figures. Major revisions present. Accepted for publication in ApJ
arxiv created 2004/08/13 · openalex publication_date 2004/11/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
XMM-Newton observed SAX J2103.5+4545 on 2003 January 6, while the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer ( RXTE ) was also monitoring the source. Using the RXTE Proportional Counter Array data set between 2002 December 3 and 2003 January 29, the spin period and average spin-up rate during the XMM-Newton observations were found to be 354.7940 ± 0.0008 s and (7.4 ± 0.9) × 10 -13 Hz s -1 , respectively. In the power spectrum of the 0.9-11 keV EPIC PN light curve, we found quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) around 0.044 Hz (22.7 s) with an rms fractional amplitude of ~6.6%. We interpreted this QPO feature as the Keplerian motion of inhomogeneities through the inner disk. In the X-ray spectrum, in addition to the power-law component with high-energy cutoff and the ~6.4 keV fluorescent iron emission line, we discovered a soft component consistent with blackbody emission with kT ~ 1.9 keV. The pulse phase spectroscopy of the source revealed that the blackbody flux peaked at the peak of the pulse with an emission radius of ~0.3 km, suggesting the polar cap on the neutron star surface as the source of the blackbody emission. The flux of the iron emission line at ~6.42 keV was shown to peak at the off-pulse phase, supporting the idea that this feature arises from fluorescent emission of the circumstellar material around the neutron star rather than the hot region in the vicinity of the neutron star polar cap.