arXiv subjects

S. J. Zheng

Publications and source records attributed to S. J. Zheng.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

XRF 241001A/SN 2024aiiq: A faint soft X-ray transient detected by SVOM with a broad-line type Ic supernova revealed by JWST

X-ray flashes (XRFs) are a type of gamma-ray burst (GRB) with prompt emission predominantly below 30 keV and have been poorly detected by previous missions. The advent of the SVOM mission, with its wide-field instrument ECLAIRs, provides a new way to detect soft X-ray transients. We present photometric and spectroscopic observations of XRF 241001A detected by SVOM, a soft, subluminous, and low-energetic burst located in a poorly populated region of the Amati relation. We investigated the origin of its faint, soft high-energy emission to assess its connection to the long GRB population. We analyzed the SVOM/ECLAIRs prompt emission and modeled its afterglow emission from X-ray to-radio. We present JWST/NIRSpec and SVOM/VT observations of the associated supernova (SN 2024aiiq), and we compared its properties with previously detected GRB/SNe. The event XRF 241001A is located at z = 0.573 and has a prompt emission dominated by photons below 20 keV with a duration of T90 = 3.14 seconds. Its spectrum is consistent with both thermal and nonthermal models, each implying a low Epeak < 10 keV and Eiso ~ 8x10^49 erg. The X-ray-to-radio afterglow modeling favors an origin from a relativistic jet viewed on-axis. In the optical, XRF 241001A exhibits an early blue emission, similar to that detected in some eFXTs and inconsistent with synchrotron emission. The JWST/NIRSpec observations firmly established its collapsar origin by revealing a SN Type Ic with broad lines, comparable to SN 1998bw and SN 2025kg-like events. The event XRF 241001A is a soft low-luminosity collapsar event produced by a weak relativistic jet observed on-axis, supporting the view that part of the XRF population forms the low-energy soft tail of the long GRB population. Its observation demonstrates the potential of SVOM/ECLAIRs to probe the soft regime of the high-energy transient population that remains largely unexplored.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Early results from the SVOM Observatory Science program

We present the organisation and early results from the Observatory Science program of the Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM), based on data collected between July 2024 and December 2025. Although primarily designed for gamma-ray burst studies, SVOM's wide-field, multi-wavelength instruments enable a broad range of high-energy astrophysical investigations. We summarize the execution and performance of the General Program and Target-of-Opportunity observations, and we describe the frameworks used for serendipitous source detection and monitoring with the ECLAIRs coded-mask instrument. Over this period, SVOM carried out more than a thousand pointed observations and detected several hundred non-GRB high-energy sources, mainly X-ray binaries, as well as blazars, stellar flares, magnetars, and unidentified events. We highlight some key results, including the monitoring of the microquasar Cygnus X-1, the detection of burst oscillations from the Low-Mass X-ray Binary 4U 0614+091, the spectral-state monitoring of Aql X-1, the first SVOM detection of an X-ray blazar flare from 1ES 1959+650, and observations of a stellar flare from HD 22468. These results demonstrate SVOM's strong capabilities for time-domain astrophysics beyond its core GRB program.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Detection of Oscillations in a Type I X-Ray Burst of 4U 0614+091 with SVOM/ECLAIRs

On 2025 January 10, a thermonuclear (Type I) X-ray burst from the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary \textit{4U~0614+091} was detected with the ECLAIRs instrument on board the \textit{SVOM} mission. We present here a time-resolved spectroscopic analysis of the burst, along with the detection of burst oscillations within a 51-second interval during the decay phase. The oscillation frequency is measured to be $ν= 413.674 \pm 0.002\,\mathrm{Hz}$, consistent with previous reports. However, we detect a significant downward frequency drift over the burst duration, characterized by $\dotν = (-4.7 \pm 0.3) \times 10^{-3}\,\mathrm{Hz\,s^{-1}}$. This frequency evolution is atypical compared to those observed in similar burst oscillation sources. We tentatively attribute the observed drift to a Doppler shift induced by orbital motion. Under this interpretation, the inferred orbital period must be shorter than 20 minutes, placing \textit{4U~0614+091} among the most compact known low-mass X-ray binaries.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Unveil A Peculiar Light Curve Pattern of Magnetar Burst with GECAM observations of SGR J1935+2154

Magnetar X-ray Burst (MXB) is usually composed of a single pulse or multiple pulses with rapid rise and brief duration mostly observed in hard X-ray (soft gamma-ray) band. Previous work studied the temporal behavior of some magnetar bursts and employed the Fast Rise Exponential Decay (FRED) model to fit pulses of MXB. However, whether there is other kind of pulse shape has not been explored. In this study, we systematically examined light curve of MXBs from SGR J1935+2154 detected by GECAM between 2021 and 2022. We find that there are different light curve morphologies. Especially, we discover a peculiar and new pattern, Exponential Rise and Cut-Off Decay (ERCOD), which is significantly different from FRED and could be well described by a mathematical function we proposed. We find that MXBs with ERCOD shape are generally longer in duration, brighter in the peak flux, and harder in spectrum. We note that the ERCOD shape is not unique to SGR J1935+2154 but also present in other magnetars. This new light curve pattern may imply a special burst and radiation mechanism of magnetar.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

New insight into the Rapid Burster by Insight-HXMT

We report the timing and spectral analyses upon of the type II X-ray bursts from the Rapid Burster (MXB 1730--335) observed by Insight-HXMT and Swift/XRT. By stacking the long-duration bursts, we find for the first time that the hard X-rays are lagging than the soft X-rays by 3 seconds. However, such a lag is not visible for the short-duration bursts, probably because of the poor statistics. For all bursts the energy spectrum is found to be non-thermal, thanks to the broad band coverage of Insight-HXMT. These findings put new insights into the type-II bursts and require a temporally showing-up corona for possible interpretation.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

A Series of (Net) Spin-down Glitches in PSR J1522-5735: Insights from the Vortex Creep and Vortex Bending Models

Through a detailed timing analysis of $\textit{Fermi}$-LAT data, the rotational behavior of the $γ$-ray pulsar PSR J1522$-$5735 was tracked from August 2008 (MJD 54692) to January 2024 (MJD 60320). During this 15.4-year period, two over-recovery glitches and four anti-glitches were identified, marking a rare occurrence in rotation-powered pulsars (RPPs). The magnitudes of these (net) spin-down glitches were determined to be $|Δν_{\rm g}/ν| \sim 10^{-8}$, well above the estimated detectability limit. For the two over-recovery glitches, the respective recovery fractions $Q$ are $2.1(7)$ and $1.4(2)$. Further analysis showed no substantial variations in either the flux or pulse profile shape in any of these events, suggesting that small (net) spin-down glitches, unlike large events observed in magnetars and magnetar-like RPPs, may occur without leaving an impact on the magnetosphere. Within the framework of the vortex creep and vortex bending models, anti-glitches and over-recoveries indicate the recoupling of vortex lines that moved inward as a result of a crustquake; meanwhile, the apparent fluctuations in the spin-down rate after the glitches occur as a result of the coupling of the oscillations of bent vortex lines to the magnetosphere.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

The First GECAM Observation Results on Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes and Terrestrial Electron Beams

Gravitational-wave high-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM) is a space-borne instrument dedicated to monitoring high-energy transients, including Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) and Terrestrial Electron Beams (TEBs). We implemented a TGF/TEB search algorithm for GECAM, with which 147 bright TGFs, 2 typical TEBs and 2 special TEB-like events are identified during an effective observation time of $\sim$9 months. We show that, with gamma-ray and charged particle detectors, GECAM can effectively identify and distinguish TGFs and TEBs, and measure their temporal and spectral properties in detail. A very high TGF-lightning association rate of $\sim$80\% is obtained between GECAM and GLD360 in east Asia region.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Peculiar disk behaviors of the black hole candidate MAXI J1348-630 in the hard state observed by Insight-HXMT and Swift

We present a spectral study of the black hole candidate MAXI J1348-630 during its 2019 outburst, based on monitoring observations with Insight-HXMT and Swift. Throughout the outburst, the spectra are well fitted with power-law plus disk-blackbody components. In the soft-intermediate and soft states, we observed the canonical relation L ~ T_in^4 between disk luminosity L and peak colour temperature T_in, with a constant inner radius R_in (traditionally identified with the innermost stable circular orbit). At other stages of the outburst cycle, the behaviour is more unusual, inconsistent with the canonical outburst evolution of black hole transients. In particular, during the hard rise, the apparent inner radius is smaller than in the soft state (and increasing), and the peak colour temperature is higher (and decreasing). This anomalous behaviour is found even when we model the spectra with self-consistent Comptonization models, which take into account the up-scattering of photons from the disk component into the power-law component. To explain both those anomalous trends at the same time, we suggest that the hardening factor for the inner disk emission was larger than the canonical value of ~1.7 at the beginning of the outburst. A more physical trend of radii and temperature evolution requires a hardening factor evolving from ~3.5 at the beginning of the hard state to ~1.7 in the hard intermediate state. This could be evidence that the inner disk was in the process of condensing from the hot, optically thin medium and had not yet reached a sufficiently high optical depth for its emission spectrum to be described by the standard optically-thick disk solution.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Inflight performance of the GECAM Gamma-ray and Charge particle Detectors

The GECAM mission consists of two identical microsatellites (GECAM-A and GECAM-B). Each satellite is equipped with 25 gamma-ray detectors (GRD) and 8 charged particle detectors (CPD). The main scientific objective of the GECAM mission is to detect gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) associated with the gravitational wave events produced by the merging of binary compact stars. After the launch on Dec. 10, 2020 , we carried out a series of on orbit tests. This paper introduces the test results of the GECAM-B satellite. According to the in-flight performance, the energy band for gamma-ray detection of GECAM-B is from about 7 keV to 3.5 MeV. GECAM-B can achieve prompt localization of GRBs. For the first time, GECAM-B realized a quasi-real-time transmission of trigger information using Beidou-3 RDSS. Keywords GECAM, gamma-ray burst, gravitational wave, GRD, CPD

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2021

Ground-based calibration and characterization of GRD of GECAM: 8-160 keV

As the main detector of the GECAM satellite, the calibration of the energy response and detection efficiency of the GRD detector is the main content of the ground-based calibration. The calibration goal requires the calibrated energy points to sample the full energy range (8 keV-2 MeV) as much as possible. The low energy band (8-160 keV) is calibrated with the X-ray beam, while the high energy band (>160 keV) with radioactive sources. This article mainly focuses on the calibration of the energy response and detection efficiency in the 8-160 keV with a refined measurement around the absorption edges of the lanthanum bromide crystal. The GRD performances for different crystal types, data acquisition modes, working modes, and incident positions are also analyzed in detail. We show that the calibration campaign is comprehensive, and the calibration results are generally consistent with simulations as expected.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2021

GECAM detection of a bright type-I X-ray burst from 4U 0614+09: confirmation its spin frequency at 413 Hz

One month after launching Gravitational wave high-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM), a bright thermonuclear X-ray burst from 4U~0614+09, was observed on January 24, 2021. We report the time-resolved spectroscopy of the burst and a burst oscillation detection at 413 Hz with a fractional amplitude 3.4\% (rms). This coincides with the burst oscillation previously discovered with \textit{Swift}/BAT \citep{Strohmayer2008}, and therefore confirms the spin frequency of this source. This burst is the brightest one in the normal bursts (except the superburst) ever detected from 4U~0614+09, which leads to an upper limit of distance estimation as 3.1 kpc. The folded light curve during the burst oscillation shows a multi-peak structure, which is the first case observed during a single burst oscillation in nonpulsating sources. The multi-peak profile could be due to additional harmonics of the burst oscillation, which is corresponding to several brighter/fainter spots at the stellar surface.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Search for Gamma-Ray Bursts and Gravitational Wave Electromagnetic Counterparts with High Energy X-ray Telescope of \textit{Insight}-HXMT

The High Energy X-ray telescope (HE) on-board the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (\textit{Insight}-HXMT) can serve as a wide Field of View (FOV) gamma-ray monitor with high time resolution ($μ$s) and large effective area (up to thousands cm$^2$). We developed a pipeline to search for Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), using the traditional signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) method for blind search and the coherent search method for targeted search. By taking into account the location and spectrum of the burst and the detector response, the targeted coherent search is more powerful to unveil weak and sub-threshold bursts, especially those in temporal coincidence with Gravitational Wave (GW) events. Based on the original method in literature, we further improved the coherent search to filter out false triggers caused by spikes in light curves, which are commonly seen in gamma-ray instruments (e.g. \textit{Fermi}/GBM, \textit{POLAR}). We show that our improved targeted coherent search method could eliminate almost all false triggers caused by spikes. Based on the first two years of \textit{Insight}-HXMT/HE data, our targeted search recovered 40 GRBs, which were detected by either \textit{Swift}/BAT or \textit{Fermi}/GBM but too weak to be found in our blind search. With this coherent search pipeline, the GRB detection sensitivity of \textit{Insight}-HXMT/HE is increased to about 1.5E-08 erg/cm$^2$ (200 keV$-$3 MeV). We also used this targeted coherent method to search \textit{Insight}-HXMT/HE data for electromagnetic (EM) counterparts of LIGO-Virgo GW events (including O2 and O3a runs). However, we did not find any significant burst associated with GW events.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

HXMT Identification of a non-thermal X-ray burst from SGR J1935+2154 and with FRB 200428

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are short pulses observed in radio band from cosmological distances. One class of models invoke soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs), or magnetars, as the sources of FRBs. Some radio pulses have been observed from some magnetars, however, no FRB-like events had been detected in association any magnetar burst, including one giant flare. Recently, a pair of FRB-like bursts (FRB 200428 hereafter) separated by milliseconds (ms) were detected from the general direction of the Galactic magnetar SGR J1935+2154. Here we report the detection of a non-thermal X-ray burst in the 1-250 keV energy band with the Insight-HXMT satellite, which we identify as emitted from SGR J1935+2154. The burst showed two hard peaks with a separation of 34 ms, broadly consistent with that of the two bursts in FRB 200428. The delay time between the double radio and X-ray peaks is about 8.57 s, fully consistent with the dispersion delay of FRB 200428. We thus identify the non-thermal X-ray burst is associated with FRB 200428 whose high energy counterpart is the two hard peaks in X-ray. Our results suggest that the non-thermal X-ray burst and FRB 200428 share the same physical origin in an explosive event from SGR J1935+2154.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Physical origin of the nonphysical spin evolution of MAXI J1820+070

We report on the Insight-HXMT observations of the new black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1820+070 during its 2018 outburst. Detailed spectral analysis via the continuum fitting method shows an evolution of the inferred spin during its high soft sate. Moreover, the hardness ratio, the non-thermal luminosity and the reflection fraction also undergo an evolution, exactly coincident to the period when the inferred spin transition takes place. The unphysical evolution of the spin is attributed to the evolution of the inner disc, which is caused by the collapse of a hot corona due to condensation mechanism or may be related to the deceleration of a jet-like corona. The studies of the inner disc radius and the relation between the disc luminosity and the inner disc radius suggest that, only at a particular epoch, did the inner edge of the disc reach the innermost stable circular orbit and the spin measurement is reliable. We then constrain the spin of MAXI J1820+070 to be a*=0.2^{+0.2}_{-0.3}. Such a slowly spinning black hole possessing a strong jet suggests that its jet activity is driven mainly by the accretion disc rather than by the black hole spin.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Accretion Torque Reversals in GRO J1008-57 Revealed by Insight-HXMT

GRO J1008-57, as a Be/X-ray transient pulsar, is considered to have the highest magnetic field in known neutron star X-ray binary systems. Observational data of the X-ray outbursts in GRO J1008-57 from 2017 to 2020 were collected by the Insight-HXMT satellite. In this work, the spin period of the neutron star in GRO J1008-57 was determined to be about 93.28 seconds in August 2017, 93.22 seconds in February 2018, 93.25 seconds in June 2019 and 93.14 seconds in June 2020. GRO J1008-57 evolved in the spin-up process with a mean rate of $-(2.10\pm 0.05)\times$10$^{-4}$ s/d from 2009 -- 2018, and turned into a spin down process with a rate of $(6.7\pm 0.6)\times$10$^{-5}$ s/d from Feb 2018 to June 2019. During the type II outburst of 2020, GRO J1008-57 had the spin-up torque again. During the torque reversals, the pulse profiles and continuum X-ray spectra did not change significantly, and the cyclotron resonant scattering feature around 80 keV was only detected during the outbursts in 2017 and 2020. Based on the observed mean spin-up rate, we estimated the inner accretion disk radius in GRO J1008-57 (about 1 - 2 times of the Alfvén radius) by comparing different accretion torque models of magnetic neutron stars. During the spin-down process, the magnetic torque should dominate over the matter accreting inflow torque, and we constrained the surface dipole magnetic field $B\geq 6\times 10^{12}$ G for the neutron star in GRO J1008-57, which is consistent with the magnetic field strength obtained by cyclotron line centroid energy.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

QPOs and Orbital elements of X-ray binary 4U 0115+63 during the 2017 outburst observed by Insight-HXMT

In this paper, we presented a detailed timing analysis of a prominent outburst of 4U 0115+63 detected by \textit{Insight}-HXMT in 2017 August. The spin period of the neutron star was determined to be $3.61398\pm 0.00002$ s at MJD 57978. We measured the period variability and extract the orbital elements of the binary system. The angle of periastron evolved with a rate of $0.048\pm0.003$ $yr^{-1}$. The light curves are folded to sketch the pulse profiles in different energy ranges. A multi-peak structure in 1-10 keV is clearly illustrated. We introduced wavelet analysis into our data analysis procedures to study QPO signals and perform a detailed wavelet analysis in many different energy ranges. Through the wavelet spectra, we report the discovery of a QPO at the frequency $\sim 10$ mHz. In addition, the X-ray light curves showed multiple QPOs in the period of $\sim 16-32 $ s and $\sim 67- 200 $ s. We found that the $\sim100$ s QPO was significant in most of the observations and energies. There exist positive relations between X-ray luminosity and their Q-factors and S-factors, while the QPO periods have no correlation with X-ray luminosity. In wavelet phase maps, we found that the pulse phase of $\sim 67- 200 $ s QPO drifting frequently while the $\sim 16-32 $ s QPO scarcely drifting. The dissipation of oscillations from high energy to low energy was also observed. These features of QPOs in 4U 0115+63 provide new challenge to our understanding of their physical origins.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

A variable ionized disk wind in the black-hole candidate EXO 1846-031

After 34 years, the black-hole candidate EXO 1846-031 went into outburst again in 2019. We investigate its spectral properties in the hard intermediate and the soft states with NuSTAR and Insight-HXMT. A reflection component has been detected in the two spectral states but possibly originating from different illumination spectra: in the intermediate state, the illuminating source is attributed to a hard coronal component, which has been commonly observed in other X-ray binaries, whereas in the soft state the reflection is probably produced by the disk self-irradiation. Both cases support EXO 1846-031 as a low inclination system of ~40 degrees. An absorption line is clearly detected at ~7.2 keV in the hard intermediate state, corresponding to a highly ionized disk wind (log ξ > 6.1) with a velocity up to 0.06c. Meanwhile, quasi-simultaneous radio emissions have been detected before and after the X-rays, implying the co-existence of disk winds and jets in this system. Additionally, the observed wind in this source is potentially driven by magnetic forces. The absorption line disappeared in the soft state and a narrow emission line appeared at ~6.7 keV on top of the reflection component, which may be evidence for disk winds, but data with the higher spectral resolution are required to examine this.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Insight-HXMT observations of a possible fast transition from jet to wind dominated state during a huge flare of GRS~1915+105

We present the analysis of the brightest flare that was recorded in the \emph{Insight}-HMXT data set, in a broad energy range (2$-$200 keV) from the microquasar GRS~1915+105 during an unusual low-luminosity state. This flare was detected by \emph{Insight}-HXMT among a series of flares during 2 June 2019 UTC 16:37:06 to 20:11:36, with a 2-200 keV luminosity of 3.4$-$7.27$\times10^{38}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Basing on the broad-band spectral analysis, we find that the flare spectrum shows different behaviors during bright and faint epochs. The spectrum of the flare can be fitted with a model dominated by a power-law component. Additional components show up in the bright epoch with a hard tail and in the faint epoch with an absorption line $\sim$ 6.78 keV. The reflection component of the latter is consistent with an inner disk radius $\sim$ 5 times larger than that of the former. These results on the giant flare during the "unusual" low-luminosity state of GRS~1915+105 may suggest that the source experiences a possible fast transition from a jet-dominated state to a wind-dominated state. We speculate that the evolving accretion disk and the large-scale magnetic field may play important roles in this peculiar huge flare.

astro-ph.HE↗