1. A comparison of broad iron emission lines in archival data of neutron star LMXBs
- Author
-
Jon M. Miller, Rubens Reis, Didier Barret, A. C. Fabian, and Edward M. Cackett
- Subjects
Physics ,symbols.namesake ,Neutron star ,Spectrometer ,Gaussian ,Line model ,symbols ,Astrophysics ,Emission spectrum ,K-line ,Relativistic disk ,Line (formation) - Abstract
There has been recent controversy over the profile and width of broad Fe K emission lines in neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries. Much of this stems from debate over whether instrumental effects inherent to CCDs (pile-up and charge transfer inefficiencies) severely distort the line profile. Here, we compare CCD-based data from Suzaku with Fe K line profiles from archival data taken with gas-based spectrometers which do not suffer from these same issues. In general, we find good consistency between the gas-based line profiles from EXOSAT, Beppo SAX and RXTE and the CCD data from Suzaku, supporting the relativistic interpretation for the broadening of the lines. We also demonstrate that three Beppo SAX observations show evidence for asymmetric lines, with a relativistic disk line model providing a significantly better fit than a Gaussian.
- Published
- 2012