Discovery of 105 Hz coherent pulsations in the ultracompact binary IGR J16597-3704
Abstract
We report the discovery of X-ray pulsations at 105.2 Hz (9.5 ms) from the transient X-ray binary IGR J16597-3704 using NuSTAR and Swift. The source was discovered by INTEGRAL in the globular cluster NGC 6256 at a distance of 9.1 kpc. The X-ray pulsations show a clear Doppler modulation that implies an orbital period of 46 min and a projected semi-major axis of 5 lt-ms, which makes IGR J16597-3704 an ultracompact X-ray binary system. We estimated a minimum companion mass of 6.5 × 10-10 M⊙, assuming a neutron star mass of 1.4 M⊙, and an inclination angle of <75° (suggested by the absence of eclipses or dips in its light curve). The broad-band energy spectrum of the source is well described by a disk blackbody component (kT 1.4 keV) plus a comptonised power-law with photon index 2.3 and an electron temperature of 30 keV. Radio pulsations from the source were unsuccessfully searched for with the Parkes Observatory.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- February 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361/201732262
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1711.03092
- Bibcode:
- 2018A&A...610L...2S
- Keywords:
-
- binaries: general;
- stars: neutron;
- X-rays: binaries;
- accretion;
- accretion disks;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 4 pages, 4 images, Accepted for publication in A&