The Island state of the Atoll Source 4U 1820--30

Abstract

We study the rapid X-ray time variability in all public data available from the \textit{Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer's} Proportional Counter Array on the atoll source 4U 1820--30 in the low-luminosity island state. A total of $\sim46$ ks of data were used. We compare the frequencies of the variability components of 4U 1820--30 with those in other atolls sources. These frequencies were previously found to follow a universal scheme of correlations. We find that 4U 1820--30 shows correlations that are shifted by factors of $1.13\pm0.01$ and $1.21\pm0.02$ with respect to those in other atoll sources. These shifts are similar to, but smaller than the shift factor $\sim1.45$ previously reported for some accreting millisecond pulsars. Therefore, 4U 1820--30 is the first atoll source which shows no significant pulsations but has a significant shift in the frequency correlations compared with other 3 non-pulsating atoll sources.