Revisiting the archetypical wind accretor Vela X-1 in depth

Journal article

We describe the scientific potential of a Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) onboard the ESA–CAS satellite SMILE to study the activity of cosmic X-ray sources in the soft X-ray region and located in the fields planned to be observed by SXI. We used the 2–3 keV band flux of the monitor MAXI/ISS, covering at least part of the expected band of the SXI/SMILE telescope. We discuss how SXI can contribute to this branch and how combining the SXI/SMILE data with those obtained by other satellites on the same days can be helpful if the light curves of the 1-day means are used. We show these possibilities on several examples of cosmic X-ray sources (Vela X-1 and GROJ1008-57 containing neutron stars accreting matter from their companions) in the field of view of SXI. Including observations from MAXI/ISS and BAT/Swift will enable extending the coverage to the energy of 50 keV

Authors: Kretschmar, P; Mellah, IE; Martínez-Núñez, S; Fürst, F; Grinberg, V

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: EDP Sciences
• Journal: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Volume: 652
• Pages: A95-A95
• Publication date: 2021-05-11
• Acceptance date: 2021-04-21
• DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202040272
• EISSN: 1432-0746
• ISSN: 0004-6361
• Language: English
• Keywords: Field (mathematics); Archetype; Solar System; Phenomenology (philosophy); Vela