Tracing the outburst decay of soft X-ray transients Aql X−1 and 4U 1608−52 with XSPECT

Clicks: 1
ID: 314682
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal

Ranked #579 of 900 articles by views in monthly notices of the royal astronomical society

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 900 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Abstract XSPECT instrument on-board XPoSat mission is a soft X-ray spectrometer sensitive in the energy band 0.8−15 keV. XSPECT has observed several bright neutron star low mass X-ray binaries since launch. Two well known sources, Aql X−1 and 4U 1608−52 which are soft X-ray transients, were observed by XPoSat during the decay phase of their recent outbursts in September 2024 and February 2025 respectively. During XSPECT observations, 4U 1608−52 exhibited a superburst which is a long duration thermonuclear burst, believed to be triggered by carbon burning. We carry out a detailed spectro-temporal analysis of the superburst, tracing its onset, rise, and decay over the next several hours. Using time-resolved spectroscopy, we probe the spectral evolution of the source and find that the persistent emission is suppressed during the superburst and the emission can be described by a gradually cooling blackbody component. The superburst was preceded by a precursor burst which is a normal type-I X-ray burst. We also observe a type-I burst ~5 days after the superburst, indicating resumption of burst activities which is typically quenched after a superburst. Aql X−1 also exhibited a type-I burst during XSPECT observations. The persistent emission of both the sources can be fitted using a combination of blackbody and disk blackbody emission or, alternatively, using a disk Comptonized by an optically thick plasma. Using the latter model, we find a clear flux dependence of the Comptonization parameters, with both the sources exhibiting harder spectra at higher accretion rates.
Reference Key
openalex_W7162135835 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Rwitika Chatterjee, Vivek Kumar Agrawal, V P Shyam Prakash, Koushal Vadodariya, Radhakrishna V
Journal monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/mnras/stag956
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag956
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.