E. Beklen

When A Standard Candle Flickers

The Crab Nebula is the only hard X-ray source in the sky that is both bright enough and steady enough to be easily used as a standard candle. As a result, it has been used as a normalization standard by most X-ray/gamma-ray telescopes. Although small-scale variations in the nebula are well known, since the start of science operations of the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) in 2008 August, a ~7% (70 mCrab) decline has been observed in the overall Crab Nebula flux in the 15-50 keV band, measured with the Earth occultation technique. This decline is independently confirmed in the ~15-50 keV band with three other instruments: the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (Swift/BAT), the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer Proportional Counter Array (RXTE/PCA), and the Imager on-Board the INTEGRAL Satellite (IBIS). A similar decline is also observed in the ~3-15 keV data from the RXTE/PCA and in the 50-100 keV band with GBM, Swift/BAT, and INTEGRAL/IBIS. The pulsed flux measured with RXTE/PCA since 1999 is consistent with the pulsar spin-down, indicating that the observed changes are nebular. Correlated variations in the Crab Nebula flux on a ~3 year timescale are also seen independently with the PCA, BAT, and IBIS from 2005 to 2008, with a flux minimum in 2007 April. As of 2010 August, the current flux has declined below the 2007 minimum.

NEW TORQUE REVERSAL AND SPIN-UP OF 4U 1626-67 OBSERVED BY FERMI/GAMMA-RAY BURST MONITOR AND SWIFT/BURST ALERT TELESCOPE

After about 18 years of steadily spinning down, the accretion–powered pulsar 4U1626–67 experienced a torque reversal at the beginning of 2008. For the present study we have used all available Fermi/GBM data since its launch in 2008 June 11 and over 5 yr of hard X-ray Swift/BAT observations (starting from 2004 October up to the present time). This second detected torque reversal is centered near MJD 54500 (2008 Feb 4) and it lasts approximately 150 days. From 2004 up to the end of 2007 4U1626–67 the spin–down rate decreased at a mean rate of ∼ ν̇=5.5×10 Hz s until the source reversed torque again. Since then it has been following a steady spin–up at a mean rate of ∼ ν̇=5×10 Hz s. In addition, 4U 1626–67 increased its flux simultaneously (a ∼2.5 factor). We present detailed long-term timing analysis of this source and a long term spectral hardness ratio study in order to see whether there are spectral changes around this new observed torque reversal. Subject headings: accretion, accretion disks— binaries: close — pulsars: individual (4U 1626–67 ) — stars: neutron—X-rays: starsAfter about 18 yr of steadily spinning down, the accretion-powered pulsar 4U?1626-67 experienced a new torque reversal at the beginning of 2008. For the present study, we have used all available Fermi/Gamma-ray Burst Monitor data since its launch in 2008 June 11 and over 5 yr of hard X-ray Swift/Burst Alert Telescope observations (starting from 2004 October up to the present time). From 2004 up to the end of 2007 the spin-down rate averaged at a mean rate of ?Hz?s?1 until the torque reversal reported here. This second detected torque reversal was centered near MJD 54500 (2008 February 4) and it lasted approximately 150 days. During the reversal, the source also underwent an increase in flux by a fraction of ~2.5. Since then it has been following a steady spin-up at a mean rate of ?Hz?s?1. We present a detailed long-term timing analysis of this source and a long-term spectral hardness ratio study in order to see whether there are spectral changes around this new observed torque reversal.

THREE YEARS OF FERMI GBM EARTH OCCULTATION MONITORING: OBSERVATIONS OF HARD X-RAY/SOFT GAMMA-RAY SOURCES

The Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on board Fermi has been providing continuous data to the astronomical community since 2008 August 12. In this paper, we present the results of the analysis of the first three years of these continuous data using the Earth occultation technique to monitor a catalog of 209 sources. From this catalog, we detect 99 sources, including 40 low-mass X-ray binary/neutron star systems, 31 high-mass X-ray binary/neutron star systems, 12 black hole binaries, 12 active galaxies, and 2 other sources, plus the Crab Nebula, and the Sun. Nine of these sources are detected in the 100-300 keV band, including seven black hole binaries, the active galaxy Cen A, and the Crab. The Crab and Cyg X-1 are also detected in the 300-500 keV band. GBM provides complementary data to other sky-monitors below 100 keV and is the only all-sky monitor above 100 keV. Up-to-date light curves for all of the catalog sources can be found online.

FIRST RESULTS FROM FERMI GAMMA-RAY BURST MONITOR EARTH OCCULTATION MONITORING: OBSERVATIONS OF SOFT GAMMA-RAY SOURCES ABOVE 100 keV

The NaI and BGO detectors on the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on Fermi are now being used for long-term monitoring of the hard X-ray/low-energy gamma-ray sky. Using the Earth occultation technique as demonstrated previously by the BATSE instrument on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, GBM can be used to produce multiband light curves and spectra for known sources and transient outbursts in the 8 keV to 1 MeV energy range with its NaI detectors and up to 40 MeV with its BGO detectors. Over 85% of the sky is viewed every orbit, and the precession of the Fermi orbit allows the entire sky to be viewed every ~26 days with sensitivity exceeding that of BATSE at energies below ~25 keV and above ~1.5 MeV. We briefly describe the technique and present preliminary results using the NaI detectors after the first two years of observations at energies above 100 keV. Eight sources are detected with a significance greater than 7σ: the Crab, Cyg X-1, SWIFT J1753.5–0127, 1E 1740-29, Cen A, GRS 1915+105, and the transient sources XTE J1752–223 and GX 339-4. Two of the sources, the Crab and Cyg X-1, have also been detected above 300 keV.

Evidence of a change in the long-term spin-down rate of the X-ray pulsar 4U 1907+09

We analysed RXTE archival observations of 4U 1907 +09 between 1996 February 17 and 2002 March 6. The pulse timing analysis showed that the source stayed at almost constant period around 1998 August and then started to spin-down at a rate of (-1.887 ∓ 0.042) × 10 -14 Hz s -1 which is ∼0.60 times lower than the long-term (∼15 yr) spin-down rate. Our pulse-frequency measurements for the first time resolved significant spin-down rate variations since the discovery of the source. We also presented orbital phase resolved X-ray spectra during two stable spin-down episodes during 1996 November-1997 December and 2001 March-2002 March. The source has been known to have two orbitally locked flares. We found that X-ray flux and spectral parameters except hydrogen column density agreed with each other during the flares. We interpreted the similar values of X-ray fluxes as an indication of the fact that the source accretes not only via transient retrograde accretion disc but also via the stellar wind of the companion, so that the variation of the accretion rate from the disc does not cause significant variation in the observed X-ray flux. Lack of significant change in spectral parameters except hydrogen column density was interpreted as a sign of the fact that the change in the spin-down rate of the source was not accompanied by a significant variation in the accretion geometry.

Recent activity of the Be/X-ray binary system SAX J2103.5+4545

Aims. We present a multiwavelength study of the Be/X-ray binary system SAX J2103.5+4545 with the goal of better characterizing the transient behaviour of this source. Methods. SAX J2103.5+4545 was observed by Swift/XRT four times in 2007 from April 25 to May 5, and during quiescence in 2012 August 31. In addition, this source has been monitored from the ground-based astronomical observatories of El Teide (Tenerife, Spain), Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma, Spain), and Sierra Nevada (Granada, Spain) since 2011 August, and from the TUBu National Observatory (Antalya, Turkey) since 2009 June. We performed spectral and photometric temporal analyses to investigate the different states exhibited by SAX J2103.5+4545. Results. In X-rays, an absorbed power-law model provided the best fit for all the XRT spectra. An iron-line feature at ∼6.42 keV was present in all the observations except for that taken during quiescence in 2012. The photon indexes are consistent with previous studies of SAX J2103.5+4545 in high/low-luminosity states. Pulsations were found in all the XRT data from 2007 (2.839(2) mHz; MJD 54 222.02), but not during quiescence. The two optical outbursts in 2010 and 2012 lasted for about eight or nine months (as the one in 2007 probably did and the current one in 2014 might do) and were most probably caused by mass-ejection events from the Be star that eventually fed the circumstellar disc. All of these outbursts started about three months before the triggering of the X-ray activity, and at about the same period before the maximum of the Hα line equivalent width (in emission) was reached at only ∼–5 A. The global correlation between the BV variability and the X-ray intensity was also observed at longer wavelengths in the IR domain.

The Fermi-GBM X-Ray Burst Monitor: Thermonuclear Bursts from 4U 0614+09

Thermonuclear bursts from slowly accreting neutron stars (NSs) have proven difficult to detect, yet they are potential probes of the thermal properties of the NS interior. During the first year of a systematic all-sky search for X-ray bursts using the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope we have detected 15 thermonuclear bursts from the NS low-mass X-ray binary 4U 0614+09 when it was accreting at nearly 1% of the Eddington limit. We measured an average burst recurrence time of 12 ± 3 days (68% confidence interval) between 2010 March and 2011 March, classified all bursts as normal duration bursts and placed a lower limit on the recurrence time of long/intermediate bursts of 62 days (95% confidence level). We discuss how observations of thermonuclear bursts in the hard X-ray band compare to pointed soft X-ray observations and quantify such bandpass effects on measurements of burst radiated energy and duration. We put our results for 4U 0614+09 in the context of other bursters and briefly discuss the constraints on ignition models. Interestingly, we find that the burst energies in 4U 0614+09 are on average between those of normal duration bursts and those measured in long/intermediate bursts. Such a continuous distribution in burst energy provides a new observational link between normal and long/intermediate bursts. We suggest that the apparent bimodal distribution that defined normal and long/intermediate duration bursts during the last decade could be due to an observational bias toward detecting only the longest and most energetic bursts from slowly accreting NSs.

Analysis of RXTE-PCA Observations of SMC X-1

We present timing and spectral analysis of Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer-Proportional Counter Array observations of SMC X-1 between 1996 January and 2003 December. From observations around 1996 August 30 with a time-span of ~6 d, we obtain a precise timing solution for the source and resolve the eccentricity as 0.00089(6). We find an orbital decay rate of P orb /P orb = -3.402(7) × 10 -6 yr -1 which is close to the previous results. Using our timing analysis and the previous studies, we construct a ~30 yr long pulse period history of the source. We show that frequency derivative shows long- (i.e. more than a few years) and short-term (i.e. order of days) fluctuations. From the spectral analysis, we found that all spectral parameters except Hydrogen column density showed no significant variation with time and X-ray flux. Hydrogen column density is found to be higher as X-ray flux gets lower. This may be due to the increase in soft absorption when the pulsar is partially obscured as in Her X-1 or may just be an artefact of the tail of a soft excess in energy spectrum.

Re Analysis of Timing Parameters of OAO 1657-415

In this paper, we present the re-analysis of a set of RXTE-PCA observations of OAO 1657-415 during 1997 August 20-27. We found a revised timing solution which was found to fit better to the data and updated pulse frequency values accordingly. We also verified that there is a marginal correlation between the gradual spin-up (or decrease in spin-down rate) and increase in X-ray luminosity as suggested by Baykal (2000).

All-Sky Monitoring of Variable Sources with Fermi GBM

Using the Gamma ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on Fermi, we monitor the transient hard X-ray/soft gamma ray sky. The twelve GBM NaI detectors span 8 keV to 1 MeV, while the two BGO detectors span 150 keV to 40 MeV. We use the Earth occultation technique to monitor a number of sources, including X-ray binaries, AGN, and solar flaring activity. Our monitoring reveals predictable and unpredictable phenomena such as transient outbursts and state changes. With GBM we also track the pulsed flux and spin frequency of accretion powered pulsars using epoch-folding techniques. Searches for quasi-periodic oscillations and X-ray bursts are also possible with GBM all-sky monitoring. Highlights from the Earth Occultation and Pulsar projects will be presented including our recent surprising discovery of variations in the total flux from the Crab. Inclusion of an all-sky monitor is crucial for a successful future X-ray timing mission.