ALBERT

Description: The existence of the periodic component seen in NGC 6814 with Exosat at 12,000 +/- 100 s is confirmed by a power spectrum and folded light curve analysis of unevenly sampled Ginga data. A comparison of the power spectra produced from simulated light curves with that observed enables the intrinsic shape of the power spectrum of the source to be determined despite the distortions introduced by the window function. The best estimate for the period is 12,132 +/- 3 s, where the error is that derived from simulations. An upper limit to the rate of change of period of about 10 exp -9 is inferred if the light curves are truly phase-coherent, but as this is not required by the data, the conservative upper limit is not greater than 5 x 10 exp -7. The large amount of power in the periodic component and its stability both suggest occultation of the source as its origin.

Description: The power spectra of the X-ray variable AGN are typically scale invariant with no characteristic timescale. The one strong exception to this is NGC 6814, where the EXOSAT data showed evidence for a periodic component at 12200 +/- 100 seconds. The power spectra of a GINGA lightcurve from this source, found using simulation techniques to account for the uneven sampling, also cannot be well fit by a single power law. A folded light curve analysis of GINGA data shows strong evidence for this periodic component. A second GINGA observation of this source taken one year later is consistent with the phenomena being completely periodic and phase coherent for 7 periods in the range of 12,110-12,145 seconds. Including the (optimistic) limits from the folding selects a period of 12130.39 +/- 0.05 seconds. Phase coherence is not maintained between this and the EXOSAT observations, as the structure of the folded light curves is very different. Thus the periodicity is long lived and stable, but phase coherence is only maintained on timescales of about 1 year.

Description: The paper reports partially simultaneous observations of the 'rapid burster' (MXB 1730-335) at X-ray, infrared, and radio wavelengths, covering several hundred hours during 1979 and 1980. None of the authors of this report saw any infrared or radio bursts. On several occasions an absence of infrared bursting was observed during X-ray bursting. On one occasion an absence of X-ray bursting was observed during a radio burst (4.1 GHz) reported by Calla et al. (1979). To date, radio bursts (a total of at least a dozen) have been reported only by Calla et al. (1980). Considering these and other observations summarized here, the reported radio bursts are either unreal or do not bear a simple relation to the X-ray bursts from the 'rapid burster'. The status of the reported infrared bursts also remain ambiguous. Limits to the brightness of any persistent radio source at the position of MXB 1730-335, limits to persistent X-ray emission during an extended X-ray quiet phase, and a measurement of the infrared polarization in the direction of the X-ray source are also reported.

Description: The 7 s X-ray pulsator 1E 2259+586 was observed for approximately 1 day in 1993 with the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA). Observations were also obtained with Broad Band X-ray Telescope (BBXRT) in 1990 a few months after Ginga had observed 1E 2259+586 to be brighter than normal and the BBXRT data show 1E 2259+586 to be at an intermediate brightness level. By contrast, the ASCA data appear to have been obtained during a more common lower luminosity state. The pulse profiles we obtain are consistent with a connection between flux and pulse shape reported from Ginga data, and the pulsator continues to spin down. We use our high spectral resolution data to search for cyclotron lines in the spectrum that were claimed from observations made with other satellites. We find that the ASCA spectra of 1E 2259+586 cannot be satisfactorily fitted with either a single power law or a combination of two power laws, and that significant residuals occur around 1.5 and 5 keV. However, a combination of a power law and blackbody gives a good fit over the entire ASCA energy band with no evidence of spectral features. We have reanalyzed a Ginga LAC spectrum and find that this is also significantly better fitted by this two-component spectrum than a single power law. A possible explanation for such a two-component spectrum is that the blackbody emission comes from a neutron star and that the power-law component comes, at least in part, from a surrounding nebula. As there has, so far, no direct evidence that 1E 2259+586 is a binary system we consider whether there are other plausible mechanisms that might power the observed X-ray emission.

Description: Methods of obtaining information about the geometry of X-ray burster systems from simultaneous optical and X-ray observations are discussed, and such simultaneous observations of 4U/MXB 1636-53 are reported. The physical idea of an optical burst being due to reprocessing of an X-ray burst in material in the vicinity of the compact object is discussed. The resulting modification of the X-ray burst signal is described in terms of an optical response function. Delay and smearing due to radiative processes are discussed along with those due to the geometry. For 4U/MXB 1636-53, the estimated delay is 2.5 seconds, the smearing is less than four seconds, and the maximum temperature of the reprocessing region is about 75,000 K. The projected area of the reprocessing region is about 6 x 10 to the 21st square cm. The neutron star is about 1.4 solar masses, the radius of the accretion disk is greater than 1.5 lt-sec, and the mass of the Roche lobe filling companion star is less than 2.0 solar masses, corresponding to a binary period between about one and ten hours.

Description: Observations of simultaneous optical and X-ray bursts from 4U/MXB 1636-53 were made using the Hakucho burst monitor system and optical telescopes at the European Southern Observatory during 1979 and 1980. The six best cases among the 10 coinciding observations are analyzed in terms of a model in which the optical emission is the result of reprocessing of X-rays (through blackbody heating). From this analysis, the temperature (spatially averaged) and size of a reprocessor, and the smearing and delay of the optical bursts are obtained. For the maximum temperatures of the optical reprocessor, the values differ from burst to burst, ranging from about 3 x 10 to the 4th to about 10 to the 5th K. The present analysis suggests that the size of the reprocessor varies by a factor of a few. For the smearing of the optical bursts an upper limit of a few seconds is derived. The most important result of this analysis is that the delay times are not the same for all bursts. The possible constraints which these results put on a low-mass binary model of this burst source are discussed.

Description: Simultaneous multifrequency observations of the BL Lac object Mrk 421 covering radio through X-ray wavelengths were performed on two occasions separated by 5 weeks in January and March 1984, and each observation was coordinated for about 1 week. Composite multifrequency spectra of the central nonthermal component were obtained at the two epochs after subtracting the optical and infrared light of the underlying galaxy. The spectra show the gradual steepening toward high frequency; the power law indices are about 0.1, about 0.6, and about 1.0 for radio, infrared-optical, and UV bands, respectively. The UV and optical-infrared fluxes decreased by about 20 percent in 5 weeks, while the radio flux remained stable. The X-ray flux decreased by a factor of about 2, and the change was more pronounced at hard X-rays, which suggest that X-ray emission possibly consists of two components. The degree of polarization at the optical band varied on the time scale of a few days, while the position angle remained unchanged. Physical parameters of Mrk 421 are discussed in terms of the synchrotron self-Compton model.