The X-ray sxpectrum of AM HER from 0.1 to 150 KEV.
Abstract
No significant flux at 100 keV was detected in the observations by the HEAO 1 satellite (March and April of 1978) and in several OSO 7 observations. The spectrum above 2 keV can be fitted by a composite thermal bremsstrahlung model that includes an approximation to the albedo expected from the white dwarf. The bremsstrahlung kTe from this model (30.9 + or - 4.5 keV) implies a white dwarf mass in excess of 0.6 solar mass. An emission feature at 6.5 + or - 0.15 keV and equivalent width of 0.8 + or - 0.1 keV is confirmed; it is thought that this might be due to fluorescence from the white dwarf by the bremsstrahlung from a small thin shocked region. It is noted that the continuum could also have been steepened at high energy in scattering in the accretion column, but the line photons cannot have gone through the same optical depths.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- November 1981
- DOI:
- Bibcode:
- 1981ApJ...250..723R
- Keywords:
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- Binary Stars;
- Stellar Spectra;
- White Dwarf Stars;
- X Ray Spectra;
- Bremsstrahlung;
- Emission Spectra;
- Heao 1;
- Iron;
- Line Spectra;
- Oso-7;
- Radiant Flux Density;
- Stellar Magnetic Fields;
- Stellar Mass Accretion;
- Stellar Temperature;
- X Ray Astronomy;
- Astrophysics