Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

Multiwavelength Observations Of 1rxh J173523.7-354013: Revealing An Unusual Bursting Neutron Star, N. Degenaar, P. G. Jonker, M. A. P. Torres, R. Kaur, N. Rea, G. L. Israel, A. Patruno, G. Trap, E. M. Cackett, P. D'Avanzo, G. Lo Curto, G. Novara, H. Krimm, S. T. Holland, A. De Luca, P. Esposito, R. Wijnands

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research Publications

On 2008 May 14, the Burst Alert Telescope onboard the Swift mission triggered on a type-I X-ray burst from the previously unclassified ROSAT object 1RXH J173523.7-354013, establishing the source as a neutron star X-ray binary. We report on X-ray, optical and near-infrared observations of this system. The X-ray burst had a duration of ~2 h and belongs to the class of rare, intermediately long type-I X-ray bursts. From the bolometric peak flux of ~3.5 × 10^-8ergcm^-2s^-1, we infer a source distance of D <~ 9.5 kpc. Photometry of the field reveals an optical counterpart that declined from R = 15.9 during the X-ray burst to R = 18.9 thereafter. Analysis of post-burst Swift/X-ray Telescope observations as well as archival XMM-Newton and ROSAT data suggests that the system is persistent at a 0.5-10 keV luminosity of ~2 × 10³⁵ (D/9.5 kpc)²ergs^-1. Optical and infrared photometry …