Person:

Rahoui, Farid

During hard X-ray observations of the Norma spiral arm region by the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) in 2013 February, a new transient source, NuSTAR J163433-4738.7, was detected at a significance level of 8σ in the 3-10 keV bandpass. The source is consistent with having a constant NuSTAR count rate over a period of 40 ks and is also detected simultaneously by Swift at lower significance. The source is not significantly detected by NuSTAR, Swift, or Chandra in the days before or weeks after the discovery of the transient, indicating that the strong X-ray activity lasted between ~0.5 and 1.5 days. Near-infrared imaging observations were carried out before and after the X-ray activity, but we are not able to identify the counterpart. The combined NuSTAR and Swift energy spectrum is consistent with a power law with a photon index of $\Gamma = 4.1^{+1.5}{-1.0}$ (90% confidence errors), a blackbody with kT = 1.2 ± 0.3 keV, or a Bremsstrahlung model with $kT = 3.0^{+2.1}{-1.2}$ keV. The reduced-χ2 values for the three models are not significantly different, ranging from 1.23 to 1.44 for 8 degrees of freedom. The spectrum is strongly absorbed with $N_{\rm H} = (2.8^{+2.3}{-1.4})\times 10^{23}$ cm–2, $(9^{+15}{-7})\times 10^{22}$ cm–2, and $(1.7^{+1.7}_{-0.9})\times 10^{23}$ cm–2, for the power-law, blackbody, and Bremsstrahlung models, respectively. Although the high column density could be due to material local to the source, it is consistent with absorption from interstellar material along the line of sight at a distance of 11 kpc, which would indicate an X-ray luminosity >1034 erg s–1. Although we do not reach a definitive determination of the nature of NuSTAR J163433-4738.7, we suggest that it may be an unusually bright active binary or a magnetar.

Recently, unresolved hard (20–40 keV) X-ray emission has been discovered within the central 10 pc of the Galaxy, possibly indicating a large population of intermediate polars (IPs). Chandra and XMM-Newton measurements in the surrounding ~50 pc imply a much lighter population of IPs with $\langle {M}{{\rm{WD}}}\rangle \approx 0.5{M}{\odot }$. Here we use broadband NuSTAR observations of two IPs: TV Columbae, which has a fairly typical but widely varying reported mass of ${M}{{\rm{WD}}}\approx 0.5$–$1.0{M}{\odot }$, and IGR J17303–0601, with a heavy reported mass of ${M}{{\rm{WD}}}\approx 1.0$–$1.2{M}{\odot }$. We investigate how varying spectral models and observed energy ranges influences estimated white dwarf mass. Observations of the inner 10 pc can be accounted for by IPs with $\langle {M}{{\rm{WD}}}\rangle \approx 0.9{M}{\odot }$, consistent with that of the CV population in general and the X-ray observed field IPs in particular. The lower mass derived by Chandra and XMM-Newton appears to be an artifact of narrow energy-band fitting. To explain the (unresolved) central hard X-ray emission (CHXE) by IPs requires an X-ray (2–8 keV) luminosity function (XLF) extending down to at least 5 × 1031 erg s−1. The CHXE XLF, if extended to the surrounding ~50 pc observed by Chandra and XMM-Newton, requires that at least ~20%–40% of the ~9000 point sources are IPs. If the XLF extends just a factor of a few lower in luminosity, then the vast majority of these sources are IPs. This is in contrast to recent observations of the Galactic ridge, where the bulk of the 2–8 keV emission is ascribed to non-magnetic CVs.