2014/03/27 by Arash Bahramian, Jeanette C. Gladstone, C. O. Heinke +6 · 17 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Binary number #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Infrared #Integral field spectrograph #Luminosity #Neutron star #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Spectral line #Spectrograph #X-ray binary #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stu611
published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 441(1), 640-645 (Oxford University Press) · 7 pages, 3 figures, MNRAS in press
arxiv created 2014/03/27 · openalex publication_date 2014/05/02 · arxiv updated 2015/06/19 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We use K-band spectroscopy of the counterpart to the rapidly variable X-ray transient XMMU J174445.5−295044 to identify it as a new symbiotic X-ray binary. XMMU J174445.5−295044 has shown a hard X-ray spectrum (we verify its association with an INTEGRAL/Imager on-Board the INTEGRAL Satellite 18–40 keV detection in 2013 using a short Swift/X-Ray Telescope observation), high and varying NH, and rapid flares on time-scales down to minutes, suggesting wind accretion on to a compact star. We observed its near-infrared counterpart using the Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrograph at Gemini-North, and classify the companion as ∼M2 III. We infer a distance of |3.1+1.8-1.1| kpc (conservative 1σ errors), and therefore calculate that the observed X-ray luminosity (2–10 keV) has reached to at least 4 × 1034 erg s−1. We therefore conclude that the source is a symbiotic X-ray binary containing a neutron star (or, less likely, black hole) accreting from the wind of a giant.