Weighing the White Dwarfs in Symbiotic Stars With X-ray Spectroscopy
Abstract
Recent all sky surveys with Swift and Integral have detected 10-50 keV emission from a small subset of symbiotic stars (white dwarfs accreting material from a red giant companion). These X-rays are thought to originate in the accretion flow, and therefore the high plasma temperatures derived from their X-ray spectra indicate high mass white dwarfs in these systems. I will present new Suzaku observations of the symbiotic stars EG And and 4 Dra aimed at characterizing the X-ray emission in systems with lower mass white dwarfs. These new datasets provide an important test of the X-ray temperature/white dwarf mass diagnostic in symbiotic stars and other accreting white dwarfs, and give insight into the mode of accretion in these systems.
- Publication:
-
AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division #12
- Pub Date:
- September 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011HEAD...12.1104N