The Quiescent Neutron Star and Hierarchical Triple, 4U2129+47
Abstract
4U 2129+47 is a quiescent, eclipsing neutron star that 35 years ago showed typical "Accretion Disk Corona" (ADC) behavior akin to the prototype of the class, X1822-371. Now faded, 4U 2129+47 provides tests of neutron star quiescent emission. It has shown low temperature thermal emission (the neutron star surface), a power law tail (of unknown origin, although possibly due to a pulsar wind interacting with an incoming accretion stream; Campana et al. 1998), and sinusoidally modulated absorption (the disk) as well as periodic X-ray eclipses. Subsequent XMM-Newton and Chandra observations, taken 2007 through Fall 2015, indicate that the hard tail and sinusoidal modulation disappeared, as if the accretion stream and disk have vanished. With the intiial loss of the hard tail, the soft X-ray flux also dropped, but since has remained steady, showing no signs of further neutron star cooling in the subsequent 8 years. We compare this behavior to recent NuSTAR observations of the quiescent neutron star Cen X-4, where the hard tail seems to persist over a wider range of quiescent flux, and correlate with the soft X-ray. It also has been speculated that 4U 2129+47 is part of a hierarchical triple system, with the third body in a much longer orbit. We use the Chandra and XMM-Newton eclipse ephemeris residuals to describe this third body orbit.
- Publication:
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AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division #15
- Pub Date:
- April 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016HEAD...1512018N