On the energy dependence of the persistent and bursting emission in GX 17+2

In neutron star X-ray binaries X-ray bursts related to thermonuclear events on the surface of the neutron star (so-called type-I bursts) are observed. The Z-source GX 17+2 is known to show thermonuclear bursts on short (about 10s) and long (> 100s) time scales. Based on RXTE data, Kuulkers et al. (2002) showed that during bursts in GX 17+2 persistent black-body emission is present.Here we present the results of our study of XMM-Newton observations of GX 17+2. XMM-Newton data allow us to cover energies below 3 keV that are not accessible to RXTE, and they provide a higher energy resolution compared to RXTE data. From our XMM-Newton study we can confirm the presence of persistent black-body emission during X-ray bursts. Furthermore, we studied the evolution of the burst in narrow energy bands and investigated the spectral evolution of the bursting emission during decay. We discuss the implications of our findings on the origin of the persistent and bursting emission.