The orbital phase resolved spectroscopy of X-ray binary 4U 1822−371 with Suzaku. (April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Niu, Shu; Yan, Shu-Ping; Lei, Shi-Jun; Nowak, Michael A.; Schulz, Norbert S.; Ji, Li
• Is Part Of: Research in astronomy and astrophysics. Volume 16:Number 4(2016:Apr.)
• Publication Date: 2016-04
• Subjects: accretion, accretion disks -- binaries: eclipsing -- line: formation -- binaries: spectroscopic -- X-rays: binaries; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Astrophysics -- Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1088/1674-4527/16/4/057
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1674-4527

Abstract

Abstract: 4U 1822−371 is a typical edge-on eclipsing low mass X-ray binary and the prototype of accretion disk coronal sources. We report on the results of a spectral analysis over the energy range 0.5–45 keV observed by Suzaku in 2006. We extract spectra from five orbital phases. The spectra can be equally well described by various previously proposed models: an optically thick model described by a partially covered cutoff power law and an optically thin model described by a blackbody plus a cutoff power law. The optically thick model requires a covering fraction of about 55%, while the optically thin model requires a temperature of the central source of about 0.16 keV. The spectrum in the optically thick model also shows the previously detected cyclotron line feature at ∼30 keV with the same Suzaku observation. This feature confirms the presence of a strong magnetic field. The Fe Kα fluorescent line strengths as well as the detected Fe XXVI strengths are similar to previous Chandra and XMM-Newton detections in our phased spectral analysis; however, we also observe strong Fe XXVI during the eclipse, which indicates a slightly larger central corona.