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Uva-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) A comparison between the rapid burster and GRO J1744-28 Lewin, W.H.G.; Rutledge, R.E.; Kommers, J.M.; van Paradijs, J.A.; Kouveliotou, C. DOI 10.1086/310022 Publication date 1996 Published in Astrophysical Journal Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Lewin, W. H. G., Rutledge, R. E., Kommers, J. M., van Paradijs, J. A., & Kouveliotou, C. (1996). A comparison between the rapid burster and GRO J1744-28. Astrophysical Journal, 462, L39-L42. https://doi.org/10.1086/310022 General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:30 Sep 2021 THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, 462 : L39–L42, 1996 May 1 q 1996. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE RAPID BURSTER AND GRO J1744228 WALTER H. G. LEWIN,ROBERT E. RUTLEDGE, AND JEFFERSON M. KOMMERS Department of Physics and Center for Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 JAN VAN PARADIJS University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL 35812, and University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands AND CHRYSSA KOUVELIOTOU Universities Space Research Association, Huntsville, AL 35800 Received 1996 February 1; accepted 1996 February 22 ABSTRACT Twenty years ago, the Rapid Burster (MXB 17302335) was discovered. Its most salient feature was the occurrence of rapidly repetitive type II X-ray bursts, the release of gravitational potential energy due to spasmodic accretion onto a compact object. This is almost certainly due to an accretion disk instability whose origin is still not understood. With the recent appearance of GRO J1744228, the Rapid Burster is no longer the only system to produce such bursts. Both systems are transient low-mass X-ray binaries in which the accretor is a neutron star. The Rapid Burster, located in a globular cluster, also produces type I bursts which are due to thermonuclear flashes on the neutron star’s surface; no X-ray pulsations are observed. Its neutron star magnetic field is therefore relatively weak. In contrast, strong X-ray pulsations have been observed in the persistent flux as well as in the type II bursts from GRO J1744228, but no type I bursts have been observed. Thus, the magnetic field of the neutron star in this system is probably stronger than is the case of the Rapid Burster. The fact that type II bursts occur in both systems may bring us closer to an understanding of the mechanism(s?) that produces them. Subject headings: stars: neutron — X-rays: general — X-rays: bursts 1. THE RAPID BURSTER has been observed from sources other than the Rapid Burster (e.g., Cyg X-1) as discussed by Lewin & Joss (1981). However, The Rapid Burster (MXB 17302335) was discovered in the type II bursts from the Rapid Burster with their unique March of 1976 during observations with the SAS3 observatory patterns and evolution make them a distinct class on their own. (Lewin et al. 1976). Extensive reviews of this source and its The Rapid Burster exhibits a variety of bursting modes and complex behavior are given by Lewin, Van Paradijs, & Taam intensities of persistent emission during its active periods. (1993, 1995); these two reviews are hereafter referred to as Type I bursts have been observed in concurrence with only LVT93, LVT95. We mention here some of the most salient type II bursts (Hoffman et al. 1978) and solely with strong features of the Rapid Burster and refer the reader largely to persistent emission (no type II bursts; Kunieda et al. 1984; LVT93 and LVT95 for references. Barr et al. 1987). At times, only type II bursts are observed, The Rapid Burster is located at a distance of 110 kpc in the with persistent X-ray emission after long (greater than 130 s) highly reddened globular cluster Liller 1. It is a low-mass X-ray type II bursts. This persistent flux emerges gradually after binary and a recurrent transient. There are 1125 known these long type II bursts and disappears before the occurrence low-mass X-ray binaries (van Paradijs 1995), all produce a of the next type II burst; this is often referred to as ‘‘dips’’ in persistent flux of X-rays, the result of a release of gravitational the persistent emission (Marshall et al. 1979; van Paradijs, potential energy. Approximately 40 of them also exhibit type I Cominsky, & Lewin 1979; Stella et al. 1988b; see Fig. 1c bursts which are due to thermonuclear flashes on the surface below). Short (, 30 s) type II bursts often show oscillations of a neutron star (LVT93 and LVT95 and references therein). (‘‘ringing’’) during their decay. Bursts within limited duration The Rapid Burster is unique among the low-mass X-ray ranges have profiles that are approximately time invariant binaries in that it produces X-ray bursts in quick succession. (Tawara et al. 1985; Tan et al. 1991). These are called type II bursts, and they result from a The peak luminosity in type II bursts ranges from 15 3 1037 spasmodic release of gravitational potential energy, which is to 14 3 1038 ergs s21 and the integrated burst energies range almost certainly due to some unknown accretion disk instabil- from 11 3 1038 to 17 3 1040 ergs (for assumed isotropic ity. The burst mechanism can be described as that of a radiation and a distance of 10 kpc). The spectra of the type II relaxation oscillator. The fluences, E, are approximately pro- bursts can be roughly approximated by that of a blackbody portional to the time intervals, Dt, following a burst. Burst with a constant value of kT (12 keV ) throughout the type II durations can be as short as 12 s and as long as 1680 s with bursts (for more details, see LVT93, LVT95). This behavior is corresponding intervals, Dt,of110 s and 11 hr, respectively. in striking contrast to type I bursts, which show a very distinct The Rapid Burster produces not only the rapidly repetitive softening during their decay. type II bursts, but also type I bursts, which occur on timescales Various levels of time-averaged persistent emission between of several hours (Hoffman, Marshall, & Lewin 1978). bursts have been observed with intensities ranging from Spasmodic accretion—thus, by definition type II bursts— 16 3 1036 to 13 3 1037 ergs s21. This time-averaged luminos- L39 L40 LEWIN ET AL. Vol. 462 ity can be as high as 150% of the time-averaged luminosity in the type II bursts. Both power-law spectra (photon index 13 G52.1 H 0.2) and thermal bremsstrahlung (kT 5 922 keV ) gave acceptable fits to the 1983 August data when persistent emission and type I (but no type II) bursts were observed (Kunieda et al. 1984; Barr et al. 1987). In 1985 August, the type II burst spectra were harder than the average spectrum of the persistent emission between the bursts (Stella et al. 1988b). Very globally, the spectrum of the persistent emission was very soft during the ‘‘dip’’ just after a burst, then it rapidly increased in hardness, after which it gradually decreased to become very soft again during the ‘‘dip’’ just prior to the next burst. Quasi-periodic oscillations (QPO) in the range 12–7 Hz have been observed in the type II bursts and in the persistent emission between the bursts; their behavior is very complex (Tawara et al. 1982; Stella et al. 1988a, b; Dotani et al. 1990; Lubin et al. 1991; Rutledge et al. 1995; LVT93; LVT95). Dotani et al. (1990) showed that during the type II bursts the oscillations are due to a periodic modulation without phase jumps whose frequency changes by up to 125%. The fre- quency shifts can explain the width of the QPO peaks in the power density spectra. The oscillations can be described by changes in the temperature of a blackbody emitter with constant emitting area, but they can equally well be described by changes in the photospheric radius and associated temper- FIG. 1.—Light curves of GRO J1744228 (a and b) and the Rapid Burster ature changes. Lewin et al. (1991) have given some arguments (c). Data for GRO J1744228 is the 2–60 keV count rate in the 5 XTE/PCA why the latter is more likely. Very strong oscillations with a detectors for four of the nine bursts observed with XTE during the 1996 21 frequency of 140 mHz were observed in the persistent emis- January 18 observations, with a nominal background count rate of 80 counts s subtracted; deadtime correction has not been applied. Data for the Rapid sion shortly after 10 long type II bursts (Lubin et al. 1992; see Burster is the 1–20 keV count rate in the EXOSAT/ME instrument (Turner, our Fig. 1c, below, near ‘‘Time’’ 5 40).
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