RXTE observations of strongly absorbed sources IGR J16318-4848 and IGR J16358-4726

Abstract

Results of analysis of RXTE observations of strongly absorbed X-ray sources IGR J16318-4848 and IGR J16358-4726 are presented. Careful subtraction of Galactic ridge emission contribution to the observed spectra of RXTE/PCA allowed us to obtain the spectra of the sources in 3-25 keV energy band. Spectra of the sources cold be well described by a power law with photoabsorption. It is shown that the value of absorption column in the case of RXTE observation of IGR J16318-4848 performed on March 14.1, 2003 is somewhat higher that that obtained by XMM observatory on Feb 10.7 2003. This could imply that the source has variable absorption, presumably connected with an orbital phase of the binary system. It is noted, that all three X-ray sources, discovered by INTEGRAL observatory in the sky region of (l,b)~(336,0) (IGR J16318-4848, IGR J16320-4751 and IGR J16358-4726) have large intrinsic photoabsorption and could be high mass X-ray binaries. This hypothesis has indirect support from the fact that their are located close to the Norma spiral arm tangent, i.e. in the region of enhanced concentrations of young massive stars. If they are reside within this spiral arm some rough estimation of the sources distance could be made -- D~6-8 kpc.