کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
1764925 | 1020077 | 2013 | 7 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |
Supergiant fast X-ray transients are a subclass of high mass X-ray binaries displaying a peculiar and still poorly understood extreme variability in the X-ray domain. These sources undergo short sporadic outbursts (LX∼LX∼ 1036–1037 erg s−1), lasting few ks at the most, and spend a large fraction of their time in an intermediate luminosity state at about LX∼LX∼ 1033–1034 erg s−1. The sporadic and hardly predictable outbursts of supergiant fast X-ray transients were so far best discovered by large field of view (FOV) coded-mask instruments; their lower luminosity states require, instead, higher sensitivity focusing instruments to be studied in sufficient details. In this contribution, we provide a summary of the current knowledge on supergiant fast X-ray transients and explore the contribution that the new space mission concept LOFT, the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing, will be able to provide in the field of research of these objects.
Journal: Advances in Space Research - Volume 51, Issue 9, 1 May 2013, Pages 1593–1599