Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• van den Berg, Maureen
• Homan, Jeroen

Titel

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE NEAR-INFRARED EMISSION FROM THE NEUTRON-STAR LOW-MASS X-RAY BINARY GX 9+1

Ist Teil von

• The Astrophysical journal, 2017-01, Vol.834 (1), p.71

Ort / Verlag

Philadelphia: IOP Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• ABSTRACT We have determined an improved position for the luminous persistent neutron-star low-mass X-ray binary and atoll source GX 9+1 from archival Chandra X-ray Observatory data. The new position significantly differs from a previously published Chandra position for this source. Based on the revised X-ray position we have identified a new near-infrared (NIR) counterpart to GX 9+1 in K s -band images obtained with the PANIC and FourStar cameras on the Magellan Baade Telescope. NIR spectra of this mag star, taken with the FIRE spectrograph on the Baade Telescope, show a strong Br γ emission line, which is a clear signature that we discovered the true NIR counterpart to GX 9+1. The mass donor in GX 9+1 cannot be a late-type giant, as such a star would be brighter than the estimated absolute K s magnitude of the NIR counterpart. The slope of the dereddened NIR spectrum is poorly constrained due to uncertainties in the column density N H and NIR extinction. Considering the source’s distance and X-ray luminosity, we argue that N H likely lies near the high end of the previously suggested range. If this is indeed the case, the NIR spectrum is consistent with thermal emission from a heated accretion disk, possibly with a contribution from the secondary. In this respect, GX 9+1 is similar to other bright atolls and the Z sources, whose NIR spectra do not show the slope that is expected for a dominant contribution from optically thin synchrotron emission from the inner regions of a jet.