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Title: | Discovery of strongly variable X-ray polarization in the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary transient XTE J1701−462 | Authors: | COCCHI, Massimo Gnarini, Andrea FABIANI, Sergio Ursini, Francesco Poutanen, Juri CAPITANIO, FIAMMA Bobrikova, Anna FARINELLI, Ruben PAIZIS, Adamantia SIDOLI, Lara Veledina, Alexandra TOMBESI, Francesco TROIS, ALESSIO Tsygankov, Sergey S. Turolla, Roberto Vink, Jacco Weisskopf, Martin C. Wu, Kinwah XIE, FEI Bianchi, Stefano DI MARCO, Alessandro Ingram, Adam Kajava, Jari J. E. LA MONACA, Fabio Matt, Giorgio MALACARIA, Christian Mikušincová, Romana RANKIN, John Zane, Silvia Agudo, Iván ANTONELLI, Lucio Angelo BACHETTI, Matteo Baldini, Luca Baumgartner, Wayne H. Bellazzini, Ronaldo Bongiorno, Stephen D. Bonino, Raffaella Brez, Alessandro BUCCIANTINI, Niccolo' Castellano, Simone Cavazzuti, Elisabetta Chen, Chien-Ting Ciprini, Stefano COSTA, ENRICO DE ROSA, Alessandra DEL MONTE, Ettore Di Gesu, Laura Di Lalla, Niccolò Donnarumma, Immacolata Doroshenko, Victor Dovčiak, Michal Ehlert, Steven R. Enoto, Teruaki EVANGELISTA, YURI FERRAZZOLI, RICCARDO Garcia, Javier A. Gunji, Shuichi Hayashida, Kiyoshi Heyl, Jeremy Iwakiri, Wataru Jorstad, Svetlana G. Kaaret, Philip Karas, Vladimir Kislat, Fabian Kitaguchi, Takao Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J. Krawczynski, Henric Latronico, Luca Liodakis, Ioannis Maldera, Simone Manfreda, Alberto Marin, Frédéric Marinucci, Andrea Marscher, Alan P. Marshall, Herman L. MASSARO, Francesco Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki Mizuno, Tsunefumi MULERI, FABIO Negro, Michela Ng, Chi-Yung O’Dell, Stephen L. Omodei, Nicola Oppedisano, Chiara PAPITTO, ALESSANDRO Pavlov, George G. Peirson, Abel L. PERRI, Matteo Pesce-Rollins, Melissa Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier PILIA, Maura POSSENTI, ANDREA Puccetti, Simonetta Ramsey, Brian D. RATHEESH, AJAY Roberts, Oliver J. Romani, Roger W. Sgrò, Carmelo Slane, Patrick SOFFITTA, PAOLO Spandre, Gloria Swartz, Douglas A. Tamagawa, Toru TAVECCHIO, Fabrizio Taverna, Roberto Tawara, Yuzuru Tennant, Allyn F. Thomas, Nicholas E. |
Issue Date: | 2023 | Journal: | ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS | Number: | 674 | First Page: | L10 | Abstract: | Context. After about 16 years since its first outburst, the transient neutron star low-mass X-ray binary XTE J1701−462 turned on again in September 2022, allowing for the first study of its X-ray polarimetric characteristics by a dedicated observing program with the Imaging X-ray Polarimeter Explorer (IXPE). <BR /> Aims: Polarimetric studies of XTE J1701−462 have been expected to improve our understanding of accreting weakly magnetized neutron stars, in particular, the physics and the geometry of the hot inner regions close to the compact object. <BR /> Methods: The IXPE data of two triggered observations were analyzed using time-resolved spectroscopic and polarimetric techniques, following the source along its Z-track of the color-color diagram. <BR /> Results: During the first pointing on 2022 September 29, an average 2-8 keV polarization degree of (4.6 ± 0.4)% was measured, the highest value found up to now for this class of sources. Conversely, only a ∼0.6% average degree was obtained during the second pointing ten days later. <BR /> Conclusions: The polarimetric signal appears to be strictly related to the higher energy blackbody component associated with the boundary layer (BL) emission and its reflection from the inner accretion disk, and it is as strong as 6.1% and 1.2% (> 95% significant) above 3-4 keV for the two measurements, respectively. The variable polarimetric signal is apparently related to the spectral characteristics of XTE J1701−462, which is the strongest when the source was in the horizontal branch of its Z-track and the weakest in the normal branch. These IXPE results provide new important observational constraints on the physical models and geometry of the Z-sources. Here, we discuss the possible reasons for the presence of strong and variable polarization among these sources. | URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/34509 | URL: | http://arxiv.org/abs/2306.10965v1 https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2023/06/aa46275-23/aa46275-23.html |
ISSN: | 0004-6361 | DOI: | 10.1051/0004-6361/202346275 | Bibcode ADS: | 2023A&A...674L..10C | Fulltext: | open |
Appears in Collections: | 1.01 Articoli in rivista |
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File | Description | Size | Format | |
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Cocchi_2023.pdf | PDF editoriale | 4.06 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
2306.10965.pdf | preprint | 4.09 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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