A detailed spectral study of intermittent-accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar Aql X-1 during <i>pulse</i>-<i>on</i> and <i>pulse</i>-<i>off</i> stages


Kocabıyık T., Güngör C., Sağlam M. T., Güver T., Bostancı Güver Z. F.

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, cilt.537, sa.1, ss.500-506, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 537 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2025
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1093/mnras/staf041
  • Dergi Adı: MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Aerospace Database, Applied Science & Technology Source, Communication Abstracts, Compendex, INSPEC, Metadex, zbMATH, DIALNET, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.500-506
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: accretion, accretion discs, stars: neutron, X-rays: binaries, X-rays: individuals: Aql X-1
  • Erciyes Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

We present a detailed spectral study of an intermittent-AMXP Aql X-1 during the pulse-on and pulse-off stages by using the archival Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) data. We first perform temporal analysis by using Z(n)(2) technique in three different energy bands, 3.0-13.0, 13.0-23.0, and 23.0-33.0 keV, for the last 128 s time segment of the RXTE data including pulse-on region. We show that the pulse is the most significant in the softest band. We, then, show that the spectrum is represented the best via combination of absorbed blackbody, disc blackbody, and a Gaussian line. We modelled the last four segments of the data 30188-03-05-00 to better compare pulse-on and pulse-off stages. We found a vague residual in the spectral fit of the pulse-on segment between similar to 3.0 and 13.0 keV, which agrees with the result of temporal analysis. We show that the residual may be represented with an extra blackbody component with the temperature of 1.75 keV and the radius of 0.75 +/- 0.49 km. For deeper analysis, we performed phase-resolved spectroscopy to the last 128 s, pulse-on, segment. We obtain two separate spectra for the spin phase ranges of 0.75-0.25 (pulse-high) and 0.25-0.75 (pulse-low), and followed the same procedure. We display that the residual becomes more clear for pulse-high compared to the pulse-low. We report that the additional blackbody component, which models the residual, indicates a hotspot from the surface of the neutron star with the radius of 1.65 +/- 0.74 km whose temperature is 1.65 keV.