NuSTAR and swift observations of the fast rotating magnetized white dwarf AE Aquarii

Journal Article · Mon Feb 10 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/782/1/3· OSTI ID:22348074

Kitaguchi, Takao ^[1]; An, Hongjun; Kaspi, Victoria M. ^[2]; Beloborodov, Andrei M.; Gotthelf, Eric V.; Hailey, Charles J. ^[3]; Hayashi, Takayuki ^[4]; Rana, Vikram R.; Harrison, Fiona A. ^[5]; Boggs, Steven E.; Craig, William W. ^[6]; Christensen, Finn E. ^[7]; Stern, Daniel ^[8]; Zhang, Will W. ^[9]

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1. RIKEN Nishina Center, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198 (Japan)
2. Department of Physics, McGill University, Rutherford Physics Building, 3600 University Street, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T8 (Canada)
3. Physics Department and Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
4. The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science/JAXA, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara 252-5210 (Japan)
5. Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
6. Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
7. DTU Space-National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327, DK-2800 Lyngby (Denmark)
8. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
9. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)

AE Aquarii is a cataclysmic variable with the fastest known rotating magnetized white dwarf (P {sub spin} = 33.08 s). Compared to many intermediate polars, AE Aquarii shows a soft X-ray spectrum with a very low luminosity (L {sub X} ∼ 10{sup 31} erg s{sup –1}). We have analyzed overlapping observations of this system with the NuSTAR and the Swift X-ray observatories in 2012 September. We find the 0.5-30 keV spectra to be well fitted by either an optically thin thermal plasma model with three temperatures of 0.75{sub −0.45}{sup +0.18}, 2.29{sub −0.82}{sup +0.96}, and 9.33{sub −2.18}{sup +6.07} keV, or an optically thin thermal plasma model with two temperatures of 1.00{sub −0.23}{sup +0.34} and 4.64{sub −0.84}{sup +1.58} keV plus a power-law component with photon index of 2.50{sub −0.23}{sup +0.17}. The pulse profile in the 3-20 keV band is broad and approximately sinusoidal, with a pulsed fraction of 16.6% ± 2.3%. We do not find any evidence for a previously reported sharp feature in the pulse profile.

• OSTI ID: 22348074
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 782, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ACCRETION DISKS
APPROXIMATIONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
KEV RANGE
LUMINOSITY
NOVAE
PHOTONS
PLASMA
SOFT X RADIATION
SPECTRA
WHITE DWARF STARS