ALBERT

Description: We introduce a new method for analyzing the a periodic variability of coherent pulsations in accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars (AMXPs). Our method involves applying a complex frequency correction to the time-domain lightcurve, allowing for the aperiodic modulation of the pulse amplitude to be robustly extracted in the frequency domain. We discuss the statistical properties of the resulting modulation spectrum and show how it can be correlated with the non-pulsed emission to determine if the periodic and a periodic variability are coupled processes. Using this method, we study the 598.88 Hz coherent pulsations of the AMXP IGR J00291+5934 as observed with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer and XMM-Newton. We demonstrate that our method easily confirms the known coupling between the pulsations and a strong 8 mHz quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) in XMM-Newton observations. Applying our method to the RXTE observations, we further show, for the first time, that the much weaker 20 mHz QPO and its harmonic are also coupled with the pulsations. We discuss the implications of this coupling and indicate how it may be used to extract new information on the underlying accretion process.

Description: (NICER) monitoring campaign of the 468 Hz accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J173793747. From a detailed spectral and timing analysis of the coherent pulsations we nd that they show a strong energy dependence, with soft thermal emission lagging about 640 s behind the hard, Comptonized emission. Additionally, we observe uncommonly large pulse fractions, with measured amplitudes in excess of 20% sinusoidal fractional amplitude across the NICER passband and uctuations of up to 70%. Based on a phase-resolved spectral analysis, we suggest that these extreme properties might be explained if the source has an unusually favorable viewing geometry with a large magnetic misalignment angle. Due to these large pulse fractions, we were able to detect pulsations down to quiescent luminosities (~5 x 10(exp 33) erg/s).

Description: We report on the coherent timing analysis of the 182 Hz accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar SwiftJ1756.92508during its 2018 outburst as observed with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). Combiningour NICER observations with Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer observations of the 2007 and 2009 outbursts, we alsostudied the long-term spin and orbital evolution of this source. We find that the binary system is well describedby a constant orbital period model, with an upper limit on the orbital period derivative of Pb 〈 7.4 10-13 ss1.Additionally, we improve upon the source coordinates through astrometric analysis of the pulse arrival times,finding R.A.=17h56m57 180 08 and decl.=250627 83 5, while simultaneously measuring thelong-term spin frequency derivative as n = -7.3 10-16 Hzs1. We briefly discuss the implications of thesemeasurements in the context of the wider population of accreting millisecond pulsars. We reported on the coherent timing analysis of the 2018 outburst of Swift J1756 as observed with NICER. Consistent with analyses of the previous outbursts (Krimm et al. 2007b; Patruno et al. 2010), we find that the X-ray pulsations have energy dependent amplitudes; the fractional amplitude of the fundamental increases with energy, whereas the fractional amplitude of the harmonic shows a slight decline with energy. This energy dependent behavior is not unusual in AMXPs (Patruno & Watts 2012) and can be interpreted in terms of the thermal emission from the stellar hotspot and reprocessing in the accretion column (e.g., Gierliski et al. 2002; Ibragimov & Poutanen 2009). The pulse arrival times of the 2018 outburst are well described by a timing model consisting of a circular orbit with a constant spin frequency. The pulse phases with respect to this model do not show spurious residuals with time or orbital phase, and no evidence is found that the pulse arrival times exhibit an additional delay associated with passing through the gravitational well of the companion star (Shapiro delay). We note, however, that the expected Shapiro delay is given as (Shapiro et al. 1971) Equation (5) where is the orbital phase, G is the gravitational constant, c is the speed of light, and i is the inclination. Even for the maximum allowed companion mass, ${M}_{C}=0.030\,{M}_{\odot }$ (Krimm et al. 2007b, but see Section 4.2 for more details) and an inclination of 90, the largest delay we can expect is only 4 s. As this time-delay is smaller than the uncertainty on our phase residuals by nearly two orders of magnitude (see Figure 1), we are not sensitive to Shapiro delays in Swift J1756. Comparing our measurements for the 2018 outburst with those of the 2007 and 2009 outbursts as observed with RXTE, we analyzed the long-term evolution of this source. We found that the binary system is consistent with having a constant orbital period and that the pulsar shows a spin frequency derivative of $\dot{\nu }=-7.3\times {10}^{-16}\,\mathrm{Hz}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}$. 4.1. Spin-down Evolution The long-term spin frequency derivative measured in Swift J1756 is of the same order as the spin frequency derivatives measured in other AMXPs (Hartman et al. 2008; Patruno 2010; Riggio et al. 2011). This frequency change is most likely driven by the neutron star's loss of rotational energy. If so, then the spin-down luminosity is given as Equation (6) where I represents the neutron star moment of inertia. The long-term spin-down of a neutron star is usually assumed to be dominated by the braking torque associated with a spinning magnetic field. Assuming this mechanism is responsible for the observed spin-down in Swift J1756, we can compute the magnetic dipole moment as (Spitkovsky 2006) Equation (7) where is the misalignment angle between the rotational and magnetic poles. Considering = 090, we then find a magnetic field strength of $B\simeq (4\mbox{--}6)\times {10}^{8}$ G at the stellar magnetic poles. This magnetic field strength estimate is in line with those obtained for other accreting millisecond pulsars (see Mukherjee et al. 2015 and references therein). 4.2. Orbit Evolution The observed long-term binary evolution of Swift J1756 is consistent with this source having a constant orbital period and a lower limit on the evolutionary timescale of Equation (8) Binary evolution theory predicts that systems of this type evolve due to angular momentum loss through gravitational radiation (Kraft et al. 1962; Rappaport et al. 1982; Verbunt 1993). For conservative mass transfer, the binary period derivative is given by di Salvo et al. (2008), Equation (9) where MNS is the neutron star mass, $q={M}_{C}/{M}_{\mathrm{NS}}$ is the binary mass ratio, and 1/3 〈 n 〈 1 is the massradius index of the companion star. Depending on the source inclination, Krimm et al. (2007b) derived a companion mass of ${M}_{C}\,=0.007\mbox{--}0.022\,{M}_{\odot }$ for a neutron star mass of 1.4 ${M}_{\odot }$. For a neutron star mass of 2.2 ${M}_{\odot }$, the allowed range increased to ${M}_{C}=0.009\mbox{--}0.030\,{M}_{\odot }$. In both cases, they assumed an upper limit on the inclination of i 〈 85, motivated by the fact that Swift J1756 does not show eclipses in its light curve. Accounting for the extreme cases of stellar masses and n, the binary may either be contracting or expanding. In either case, however, the rate of change is limited to $| {\dot{P}}_{b}| \lesssim 7\times {10}^{-14}$ s s1, which is well below the upper limit obtained in this work. Although the binary evolution timescale we obtain for Swift J1756 is consistent with theory, it is worth noting that this is not generally true for low-mass X-ray binaries (see Patruno et al. 2017, for a comprehensive discussion). The AMXP SAX J1808.43658, in particular, has been found to evolve on a much shorter timescale, with a first derivative on the orbital period of $3.5\times {10}^{-12}$ s s1 (Hartman et al. 2008; Patruno et al. 2012; Sanna et al. 2017a). Two models have been proposed to explain this discrepancy: highly nonconservative mass transfer due to irradiation of the companion star by the pulsar (di Salvo et al. 2008; Burderi et al. 2009), and spinorbit coupling in the companion star (Hartman et al. 2008, 2009). While the latter depends on the companion star, and may vary from source to source, the former should operate in all AMXPs (see also Patruno 2017; Sanna et al. 2017c), including Swift J1756. The spin-down luminosity impinging on the companion star can be estimated as Equation (10) where ${\dot{E}}_{\mathrm{abl}}$ is the ablation luminosity, RL2 is the Roche lobe radius of the companion (Eggleton 1983), and a the binary separation. The irradiation fraction is $f={\dot{E}}_{\mathrm{abl}}/{\dot{E}}_{\mathrm{sd}}$, which, accounting for the range of allowed neutron star and companion masses, evaluates to f = 0.15%0.35%. The associated mass loss for the companion is given by Equation (11) such that, assuming an efficiency of = 100%, ${\dot{M}}_{C}\,\sim -3\times {10}^{-10}\,{M}_{\odot }$ yr1. The effect of this mass loss on the orbital period follows through the relation (Frank et al. 2002) Equation (12) giving a period derivative due to mass loss of ${\dot{P}}_{b,\mathrm{ML}}\,=5\times {10}^{-12}$ s s1. This value is well above our limit on the period derivative. Hence, in order for this mechanism to be consistent with our observations of Swift J1756, the efficiency at which the companion star converts the incident luminosity into mass loss must be 〈 15%. This value is very different from the 40% required in SAX J1808.43658 (Patruno et al. 2016) and is instead in line with the 〈5% efficiency determined for IGR J00291+5934 (Patruno 2017). This work was supported by NASA through the NICER mission and the Astrophysics Explorers Program, and made use of data and software provided by the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC). P.B. was supported by an NPP fellowship at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. D.A. acknowledges support from the Royal Society.

Description: We report on a spectral-timing analysis of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary(LMXB)AqlX-1 with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) on the International Space Station (ISS). AqlX-1 wasobserved with NICER during a dim outburst in 2017 July, collecting approximately 50 ks of good exposure. The spectral and timing properties of the source correspond to that of a (hard) extreme island state in the atoll classification. We find that the fractional amplitude of the low-frequency (〈0.3Hz) band-limited noise shows adramatic turnover as a function of energy: it peaks at 0.5keV with nearly 25% rms, drops to 12% rms at 2keV,and rises to 15% rms at 10keV. Through the analysis of covariance spectra, we demonstrate that band-limited noise exists in both the soft thermal emission and the power-law emission. Additionally, we measure hard timelags, indicating the thermal emission at 0.5keV leads the power-law emission at 10 keV on a timescale of 100ms at 0.3Hz to10ms at 3Hz. Our results demonstrate that the thermal emission in the hard state is intrinsically variable, and is driving the modulation of the higher energy power-law. Interpreting the thermal spectrum as disk emission, we find that our results are consistent with the disk propagation model proposed for accretion onto black holes.

Description: We report on the detection of a kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). Analyzing approximately 165 ks of NICER exposure on the X-ray burster 4U 0614+09, we detect multiple instances of a single-peak upper kHz QPO, with centroid frequencies that range from 400 to 750 Hz. We resolve the kHz QPO as a function of energy, and measure, for the first time, the QPO amplitude below 2 keV. We find the fractional amplitude at 1 keV is on the order of 2% rms, and discuss the implications for the QPO emission process in the context of Comptonization models.

Description: The Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer has observed seven thermonuclear X-ray bursts from the lowmass X-ray binary neutron star 4U 1728-34 from the start of the missions operations until 2019 February. Three of these bursts show oscillations in their decaying tail, with frequencies that are within 1 Hz of the previously detected burst oscillations from this source. Two of these burst oscillations have unusual properties: they have large fractional root mean square (rms) amplitudes of 48% 9% and 46% 9%, and they are detected only at photon energies above 6 keV. By contrast, the third detected burst oscillation is compatible with previous observations of this source, with a fractional rms amplitude of 7.7% 1.5% rms in the 0.3 to 6.2 keV energy band. We discuss the implications of these large-amplitude burst oscillations, finding that they are difficult to explain with the current theoretical models for X-ray burst tail oscillations.