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arXiv · astro-ph/0412236

Unusual X-ray transients in the Galactic Centre

Masaaki Sakano·Robert S. Warwick·Anne Decourchelle·Q. Daniel Wang
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Abstract

We report the discovery in the Galactic Centre region of two hard X-ray sources, designated as XMM J174457-2850.3 and XMM J174544-2913.0, which exhibited flux variations in the 2--10 keV band in excess of a factor of 100 in observations spanning roughly a year. In both cases the observed hydrogen column density is consistent with a location near to the Galactic Centre, implying peak X-ray luminosities of ~5 x 10^34 erg/s. These objects may represent a new population of transient source with very different properties to the much more luminous Galactic Centre transients associated with neutron star and black-hole binary systems. Spectral analysis shows that XMM J174457-2850.3 has relatively weak iron-line emission set against a very hard continuum. XMM J174544-2913.0, on the other hand, has an extremely strong K-line from helium-like iron with an equivalent width of ~2.4keV. The nature of the latter source is of particular interest. Does it represent an entirely new class of object or does it correspond to a known class of source in a very extreme configuration?

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Masaaki Sakano, Robert S. Warwick, Anne Decourchelle, Q. Daniel Wang. 2004-12-09. Unusual X-ray transients in the Galactic Centre. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08717.x

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