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arXiv · 1212.0323

Observations of Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients with LOFT

E. Bozzo·P. Romano·C. Ferrigno·P. Esposito·V. Mangano
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Abstract

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 ~ 10^36 - 10^37 erg/s), lasting few ks at the most, and spend a large fraction of their time in an intermediate luminosity state at about LX ~ 10^33 - 10^34 erg/s. 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.

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E. Bozzo, P. Romano, C. Ferrigno, P. Esposito, V. Mangano. 2012-12-03. Observations of Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients with LOFT. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2012.12.001

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