TY - JOUR
T1 - Accretion physics in the Galaxy - The very faint X-ray binary black hole candidate Swift J1357.2-0933: Swift/XRT and UVOT analysis of its 2011 outburst.
AU - Armas Padilla, Montserrat
AU - Wijnands, Rudy
AU - Degenaar, Nathalie
AU - Russell, Dave
PY - 2012/9/1
Y1 - 2012/9/1
N2 - In the last decade a new population of X-ray transients has been
discovered. They show anomalously low peak luminosities (2-10 keV) of
1E34 to 1E36 ergs/s. A large fraction of them is expected to harbor
accreting neutron stars and black holes in binaries systems.These very
faint X-ray binaries provide a new regime to study accretion onto
compact objects, and therefore they can improve our understanding of
accretion physics and binary evolution models. We report the study of
the 2011 outburst evolution of the newly discovered black hole candidate
X-ray binary Swift J1357.2-0933. We analyzed the Swift X-ray telescope
and Ultraviolet/Optical telescope (UVOT) data taken during the outburst.
The low column density towards the source and its proximity (~1.5 kpc)
provides an exceptional opportunity to study the X-ray spectrum and the
optical counterpart in unprecedented detail and search for features such
as X-ray bursts, X-ray pulsations and eclipses/dips in the X-ray
lightcurve. Its peak luminosity of ~1E35 ergs/s classifies the source as
a very faint X-ray transient. If the black hole nature is confirmed,
Swift J1357.2-0933 would be the first established black hole very-faint
X-ray binary.
AB - In the last decade a new population of X-ray transients has been
discovered. They show anomalously low peak luminosities (2-10 keV) of
1E34 to 1E36 ergs/s. A large fraction of them is expected to harbor
accreting neutron stars and black holes in binaries systems.These very
faint X-ray binaries provide a new regime to study accretion onto
compact objects, and therefore they can improve our understanding of
accretion physics and binary evolution models. We report the study of
the 2011 outburst evolution of the newly discovered black hole candidate
X-ray binary Swift J1357.2-0933. We analyzed the Swift X-ray telescope
and Ultraviolet/Optical telescope (UVOT) data taken during the outburst.
The low column density towards the source and its proximity (~1.5 kpc)
provides an exceptional opportunity to study the X-ray spectrum and the
optical counterpart in unprecedented detail and search for features such
as X-ray bursts, X-ray pulsations and eclipses/dips in the X-ray
lightcurve. Its peak luminosity of ~1E35 ergs/s classifies the source as
a very faint X-ray transient. If the black hole nature is confirmed,
Swift J1357.2-0933 would be the first established black hole very-faint
X-ray binary.
M3 - Article
SP - 5
JO - Half a Century of X-ray Astronomy, Proceedings of the conference held 17-21 September, 2012 in Mykonos Island, Greece
JF - Half a Century of X-ray Astronomy, Proceedings of the conference held 17-21 September, 2012 in Mykonos Island, Greece
ER -