arxiv: astro-ph/0204433 · v1 · submitted 2002-04-25 · 🌌 astro-ph

Discovery of the neutron star nature of SLX 1737-282

J.J.M. in 't Zand (1 , 2) , F. Verbunt (1) , E. Kuulkers (1 , C. Markwardt (3 , 4) , A. Bazzano (5) , M. Cocchi (5)

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R. Cornelisse (1 J. Heise (2) L. Natalucci (5) P. Ubertini (5) ((1) Utrecht University (2) SRON (3) NASA-GSFC (4) University of Maryland (5) IASF at Rome)

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keywords flashbepposaxnatureneutronpersistentsourcestarthermonuclear

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SLX 1737-282 is a persistent moderately bright X-ray source 1.2 deg from the Galactic center. X-ray observations with the Wide Field Cameras on BeppoSAX have for the first time revealed the true nature of SLX 1737-282: a 15-min long thermonuclear flash was detected exposing the source as a neutron star in a binary system. The flash was Eddington-limited constraining the distance to between 5 and 8 kpc. We analyze BeppoSAX, ROSAT, and RXTE data on SLX 1737-282. The persistent 0.5-200 keV luminosity is close to or less than 1% of the Eddington limit which implies a rarely-seen circumstance for thermonuclear flash activity.

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Discovery of the neutron star nature of SLX 1737-282

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