S. E. Shaw

Polarized Gamma-Ray Emission from the Crab

Pulsar systems accelerate particles to immense energies. The detailed functioning of these engines is still poorly understood, but polarization measurements of high-energy radiation may allow us to locate where the particles are accelerated. We have detected polarized gamma rays from the vicinity of the Crab pulsar using data from the spectrometer on the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory satellite. Our results show polarization with an electric vector aligned with the spin axis of the neutron star, demonstrating that a substantial fraction of the high-energy electrons responsible for the polarized photons are produced in a highly ordered structure close to the pulsar.

INTEGRAL observations of recurrent fast X-ray transient sources

Fast X-ray Transients (FXTs) are believed to be non-recurrent bright X-ray sources lasting less than a day and occuring at serendipitous positions, they can best be detected and discovered by instruments having a sufficiently wide field of view and high sensitivity. The IBIS/ISGRI instrument onboard INTEGRAL is particularly suited to detect new or already known fast X-ray transient sources. We report on IBIS/ISGRI detection of newly discovered outbursts of three fast transient sources located at low Galactic latitude: SAX J1818.6−1703; IGR J16479−4514; IGR J17391−302/XTE J1739−302. The reported results confirm and strengthen the very fast transient nature of these sources, given that all their newly detected outbursts have a duration less than ∼3 h. Additionally, they provide the first evidence for a possible recurrent fast transient behaviour as all three sources were detected in outburst by ISGRI more than once during the last 2 years.

INTEGRAL and RXTE observations of accreting millisecond pulsar IGR J00291+5934 in outburst

Simultaneous observations of the accretion-powered millisecond pulsar IGR J00291+5934 by the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory and Rossi X-ray Timins Explorer during the 2004 December outburst are analysed. The average spectrum is well described by thermal Comptonization with an electron temperature of 50 keV and Thomson optical depth τ T ∼ 1 in a slab geometry. The spectra] shape is almost constant during the outburst. For the first time we detect a spin-up, ν = 8.4 x 10 -13 Hz s -1 , of an accreting millisecond pulsar. The ISGRI data reveal the pulsation of X-rays at a period of 1.67 milliseconds up to -150 keV. The pulsed fraction is shown to increase from 6 per cent al 6 keV to 12-20 per cent at 100 keV. This is naturally explained by the action of the Doppler effect on the exponentially cutoff Comptonization spectrum from the hot spot. The nearly sinusoidal pulses show soft lags with a complex energy dependence, increasing up to 7 keV, then decreasing to 15 keV, and seemingly saturating at higher energies.

INTEGRAL observation of the high-mass X-ray transient V 0332+53 during the 2005 outburst decline

The decline of the high mass X-ray transient V 0332+53 during the Dec. 2004 to Feb. 2005 outburst is analysed from the data recorded by INTEGRAL. The flux is shown to decrease exponentially until 2005 Feb. 10, with a decay time scale of ∼30 days above 20 keV and ∼20 days at lower energies, and to decrease linearly thereafter. The energy spectrum is well modelled throughout the decay by a power law with a folding energy of ∼7.5 keV, and with two cyclotron absorption features. The folding energy does not vary significantly over the decay, but the spectrum becomes harder with time. Most importantly, we show that the parameters describing the fundamental cyclotron line around 27 keV do vary with time: its energy and depth increase (by about 17% for the energy in ∼6 weeks), while its width decreases. These changes of the cyclotron line parameters are interpreted as resulting from a change in the extent of the cyclotron scattering region. Two quasi-periodic oscillations are also observed at various times during the observations, one at 0.05 Hz and another one near the pulsation frequency around 0.23 Hz.

Evidence of polarisation in the prompt gamma-ray emission from GRB 930131 and GRB 960924

The true nature of the progenitor to GRBs remains elusive; one characteristic that would constrain our understanding of the GRB mechanism considerably is gamma-ray polarimetry measurements of the initial burst flux. We present a method that interprets the prompt GRB flux as it Compton scatters off the Earths atmosphere, based on detailed modelling of both the Earths atmosphere and the orbiting detectors. The BATSE mission aboard the CGRO monitored the whole sky in the 20keV-1 MeV energy band continuously from April 1991 until June 2000. We present the BATSE Albedo Polarimetry System (BAPS), and show that GRB 930131 and GRB 960924 provide evidence of polarisation in their prompt flux that is consistent with degrees of polarisation of Π > 35% and n > 50% respectively. While the evidence of polarisation is strong, the method is unable to strongly constrain the degree of polarisation beyond a systematics based estimation. Hence the implications on GRB theory are unclear, and further measurements essential.

Characterizing a new class of variability in GRS 1915+105 with simultaneous INTEGRAL/RXTE observations

We report on the analysis of 100 ks INTEGRAL observations of the Galactic microquasar GRS 1915+105. We focus on INTEGRAL Revolution number 48 when the source was found to exhibit a new type of variability as preliminarily reported in Hannikainen (2003, A&A, 411, L415). The variability pattern, which we name ξ, is characterized by a pulsing behaviour, consisting of a main pulse and a shorter, softer, and smaller amplitude precursor pulse, on a timescale of 5 min in the JEM-X 3-35 keV lightcurve. We also present simultaneous RXTE data. From a study of the individual RXTE/PCA pulse profiles we find that the rising phase is shorter and harder than the declining phase, which is opposite to what has been observed in other otherwise similar variability classes in this source. The position in the colour-colour diagram throughout the revolution corresponds to Stale A (Belloni et al. 2000, A&A, 355, 271) but not to any previously known variability class. We separated the INTEGRAL data into two subsets covering the maxima and minima of the pulses and fitted the resulting two broadband spectra with a hybrid thermal-non-thermal Comptonization model. The fits show the source to be in a soft state characterized by a strong disc component below ∼6 keV and Comptonization by both thermal and non-thermal electrons at higher energies.

Global characteristics of the first IBIS/ISGRI catalogue sources: unveiling a murky episode of binary star evolution

INTEGRAL is the first gamma-ray astronomy mission with a sufficient sensitivity and angular resolution combination appropriate to the detection and identification of considerable numbers of gamma-ray emitting sources. The large field of view (∼30 ◦ zero response FWHM) enables INTEGRAL to survey the galactic plane on a regular (∼weekly) basis as part of the core programme. The first source catalogue, based on the 1st year of core programme data (∼5 Ms) has been completed and published (Bird et al. 2004, ApJ, 607, L33). It contained 123 γ-ray sources (24 HMXB, 54 LMXB, 28 “unknown”, plus 17 others) – sufficient numbers for a reasonable statistical analysis of their global properties. These were located to a positional accuracy of typically 0.72 arcmin. The detection of previously unknown γ-ray emitting sources generally exhibiting high intrinsic absorption, which do not have readily identifiable counterparts at other wavelengths, is intriguing. The substantial fraction (roughly 20% of the total number) of unclassified γ-ray sources suggests they must constitute a significant family of objects. In this paper we review the global characteristics of the known galactic sources as well as the unclassified objects with the twin aims of investigating how the unclassified set may fit into stellar evolution and improving our understanding of known X-ray binary systems through the non-thermal γ-ray channel. In the context of the known systems we are very conscious that they constitute a γ-ray selected set, and may exhibit subtle generic differences to the rest of the class. We present Log(N)–Log(S ) distributions, angular distributions, and for systems with reliable distance estimates the spatial distributions within the Galaxy and luminosity functions. For the unknown sources, this statistical analysis has shown that they are most likely to be HMXBs containing a highly magnetised neutron star. The lack of X-ray counterparts for these sources indicates a high degree of intrinsic obscuration.

Discovery of a 30-d period in the supergiant fast X-ray transient SAX J1818.6?1703

SAX J1818.6−1703 has been characterized as a supergiant fast X-ray transient system on the basis of several INTEGRAL/IBIS detections since the original BeppoSAX Wide Field Camera detection. Using IBIS/ISGRI, Swift/BAT and archival observations, we show that, in fact, SAX J1818.6−1703 exhibits emission on a period of 30 ± 0.1 d, with a high degree of recurrence. SAX J1818.6−1703 is therefore the second supergiant fast X-ray transient shown to exhibit periodic outbursts, but with a considerably shorter period than the other known system, IGR J11215−5952.

Unveiling the nature of the high energy source IGR J19140+0951

We report on high energy observations of IGR J19140+0951 performed with RXTE on three occasions in 2002, 2003 and 2004, and INTEGRAL during a very well sampled and unprecedented high energy coverage of this source from early-March to mid-May 2003. Our analysis shows that IGR J19140+0951 spends most of its time in a very low luminosity state, probably corresponding to the state observed with RXTE, and characterised by thermal Comptonisation. In some occasions we observe variations of the luminosity by a factor of about 10 during which the spectrum can show evidence for a thermal component, besides thermal Comptonisation by a hotter plasma than during the low luminosity state. The spectral parameters obtained from the spectral fits to the INTEGRAL and RXTE data strongly suggest that IGR J19140+0951 hosts a neutron star rather than a black hole. Very importantly, we observe variations of the absorption column density (with a value as high as ∼10 23 cm −2 ). Our spectral analysis also reveals a bright iron line detected with both RXTE/PCA and INTEGRAL/JEM-X, at different levels of luminosity. We discuss these results and the behaviour of IGR J19140+0951, and show, by comparison with other well known systems (Vela X-1, GX 301−2, 4U 2206+54), that IGR J19140+0951 is most probably a High Mass X-ray Binary.

Peering through the stellar wind of IGR J19140+0951 with simultaneous INTEGRAL/RXTE observations

We have used the RXTE and INTEGRAL satellites simultaneously to observe the high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) IGR J19140+0951. The spectra obtained in the 3-80 keV range have allowed us to perform a precise spectral analysis of the system along its binary orbit. The spectral evolution confirms the supergiant nature of the companion star and the neutron star nature of the compact object. Using a simple stellar wind model to describe the evolution of the photoelectric absorption, we were able to restrict the orbital inclination angle in the range 38°-75°. This analysis leads to a wind mass-loss rate from the companion star of ∼5 x 10 -8 M ⊙ yr -1 , consistent with an OB I spectral type. We have detected a soft excess in at least four observations, for the first time for this source. Such soft excesses have been reported in several HMXBs in the past. We discuss the possible origin of this excess, and suggest, based on its spectral properties and occurrences around the superior conjunction, that it may be explained as the reprocessing of the X-ray emission originating from the neutron star by the surrounding ionized gas.