Multi-wavelength observations of Galactic hard X-ray sources discovered by INTEGRAL

Abstract

Context. The INTEGRAL mission has led to the discovery of a new type of supergiant X-ray binaries (SGXBs), whose physical properties differ from those of previously known SGXBs. Those sources are in the course of being unveiled by means of multiwavelength X-rays, optical, near-and mid-infrared observations, and two classes are appearing. The first class consists of obscured persistent SGXBs and the second is populated by the so-called supergiant fast X-ray transients (SFXTs). Aims. We report here mid-infrared (MIR) observations of the companion stars of twelve SGXBs from these two classes in order to assess the contribution of the star and the material enshrouding the system to the total emission. Methods. We used data from observations we carried out at ESO/VLT with VISIR, as well as archival and published data, to perform broad-band spectral energy distributions of the companion stars and fitted them with a combination of two black bodies representing the star and a MIR excess due to the absorbing material enshrouding the star, if there was any. Results. We detect a MIR excess in the emission of IGR J16318-4848, IGR J16358-4726, and perhaps IGR J16195-4945. The other sources do not exhibit any MIR excess even when the intrinsic absorption is very high. Indeed, the stellar winds of supergiant stars are not suitable for dust production, and we show that this behaviour is not changed by the presence of the compact object. Concerning IGR J16318-4848 and probably IGR J16358-4726, the MIR excess can be explained by their sgB[e] nature and the presence of an equatorial disk around the supergiant companion in which dust can be produced. Moreover, our results suggest that some of the supergiant stars in those systems could exhibit an absorption excess compared to isolated supergiant stars, this excess being possibly partly due to the photoionisation of their stellar wind in the vicinity of their atmosphere. We also show that the differences in behaviour between the obscured SGXBs and the SFXTs in the high-energy domain do not exist from optical-to-MIR wavelength. Supergiant stars in SFXTs could nevertheless be most of the time less absorbed than supergiant stars in obscured SGXBs, due to the geometry of the systems. At last, our results confirm a very dense cocoon of material around the compact object as the extinction in the X-ray domain is generally several orders of magnitude higher than the extinction in the visible.

High-mass X-ray binaries in the Milky Way

“…The hard X-ray flux detected by INTEGRAL varies by a factor larger than 10 and can do so in a few hours. The most likely companion star is an highly reddened O8I supergiant located at ∼ 3.5kpc (Rahoui et al, 2008b). We note that IGR J16320-4751 is not related to the pulsar wind nebula HESS J1632-478 (Balbo et al, 2010).…”

“…The fast flaring activity detected from this source with INTEGRAL led Sguera et al (2006b) to associate this source with the SFXT class (see also Morris et al, 2009a). A Chandra observation performed in the direction of the source permitted to identify the supergiant companion and provide further support to this association (Tomsick et al, 2006a;Rahoui et al, 2008a).…”

“…The weakness of the Iron 6.4 keV fluorescence line Compton shoulder suggests that the absorption column density is larger on the line of sight than on average (Matt and Guainazzi, 2003;Barragán et al, 2009), pointing towards a disk like geometry. The source was associated with an infrared counterpart of spectral type sgB[e] (Filliatre and Chaty, 2004), indicating a very rare system surrounded by dense circumstellar gas and dust (Kaplan et al, 2006) that could be the signature of an equatorial disk (Rahoui et al, 2008b;Chaty and Rahoui, 2012) or of a close to LBV phase (Moon et al, 2007). No period has been detected in the system.…”

“…The horizontal red line is the Galactic equator. 2009, 2012b; Tomsick et al, 2006aTomsick et al, , 2008Tomsick et al, , 2009aRahoui et al, 2008a;Burenin et al, 2008;Chaty et al, 2008;Lutovinov et al, 2012b;Karasev et al, 2012).…”

“…Accurate spectroscopic classifications of super-giant stars in SFXTs made it possible to establish in a few cases the mass and radius of the star, together with its wind properties (i.e. mass loss rate and terminal velocity; see, e.g., Rahoui et al, 2008a, and references therein). The detection of X-ray pulsations in a few sources, with periods ranging from few up to thousand seconds, led to the conclusion that compact objects in SFXTs should be relatively young neutron stars, with magnetic field (at least) as high as 10 11 -10 12 G (Grebenev and Sunyaev, 2007a;Bozzo et al, 2008c;Sguera et al, 2010).…”