Long-term, hard X-ray observations of Scorpius X-1 from HEAO 1

The results of observations of Sco X-1 from three separate scanning epochs during 1977 and 1978 by the UCSD/MIT instruments aboard HEAO 1 in the 15-200 keV range are reported. Intensity and spectral variations have been studied on three time scales: 33-minute scans, daily averages, and weekly averages. No relationship was found between intensity and temperature over the very narrow range of temperatures observed, but comparison of the variability of the intensity, emission measure, and temperature implies at least two different emission mechanisms are at work. It is found that the spectral data are best fitted by either a thin-thermal-bremsstrahlung model of about 5 keV or a Comptonized thermal model of temperature about 3 keV. At higher energies (50-200 keV), no flux is found in excess of the thermal (as claimed by previous observers), and a 2-sigma upper limit from scanning data of 10 to the -5th photons/sq cm sec keV is set. This is an order of magnitude lower than reported detections. Using the distance derived from optical and UV measurements, X-ray luminosities from Sco X-1 incompatible with predictions for spherical accretion onto a white dwarf and emission volumes inconsistent with polar caps of white dwarfs are found.