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A NuSTAR observation of the reflection spectrum of the low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1728-34

  • Clio C. Sleator
  • , John A. Tomsick
  • , Ashley L. King
  • , Jon M. Miller
  • , Steven E. Boggs
  • , Matteo Bachetti
  • , Didier Barret
  • , Jérôme Chenevez
  • , Finn Erland Christensen
  • , William W. Craig
  • , Charles J. Hailey
  • , Fiona A. Harrison
  • , Farid Rahoui
  • , Daniel K. Stern
  • , Dominic J. Walton
  • , William W. Zhang
    • University of California at Berkeley
    • Stanford University
    • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
    • Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées
    • Columbia University
    • California Institute of Technology
    • Harvard University
    • NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

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    Abstract

    We report on a simultaneous NuSTAR and Swift observation of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1728-34. We identified and removed four Type I X-ray bursts during the observation in order to study the persistent emission. The continuum spectrum is hard and described well by a blackbody with kT = 1.5 keV and a cutoff power law with Γ = 1.5, and a cutoff temperature of 25 keV. Residuals between 6 and 8 keV provide strong evidence of a broad Fe Kα line. By modeling the spectrum with a relativistically blurred reflection model, we find an upper limit for the inner disk radius of Rin≤2RISCO. Consequently, we find that RNS ≤ 23 km, assuming M = 1.4 M ⊙ and a = 0.15. We also find an upper limit on the magnetic field of B ≤ 2 × 108 G.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number134
    JournalAstrophysical Journal
    Volume827
    Issue number2
    Number of pages11
    ISSN0004-637X
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2016

    Keywords

    • Accretion, accretion disks
    • Stars: neutron
    • X-rays: binaries

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