The X-ray spectrum of RX J1914.4+2456 revisited

TL;DR

This study re-analyzed the X-ray spectrum of RX J1914.4+2456, revealing it can be modeled with a blackbody and neon-enhanced absorption, aligning its properties with RX J0806.3+1527 and suggesting neon enrichment in the system.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates that the X-ray spectrum of RX J1914.4+2456 can be explained with a simple model including neon enhancement, resolving previous modeling difficulties.

Findings

X-ray spectrum fits with blackbody plus neon-enhanced absorption

Neon enrichment in inter-binary material suggested

Intrinsic X-ray properties similar to RX J0806.3+1527

Abstract

It has been proposed that RX J1914.4+2456 is a stellar binary system with an orbital period of 9.5 mins. As such it shares many similar properties with RX J0806.3+1527 (5.4 mins). However, while the X-ray spectrum of RX J0806.3+1527 can be modelled using a simple absorbed blackbody, the X-ray spectrum of RX J1914.4+2456 has proved difficult to fit using a physically plausible model. In this paper we re-examine the available X-ray spectra of RX J1914.4+2456 taken using XMM-Newton. We find that the X-ray spectra can be fitted using a simple blackbody and an absorption component which has a significant enhancement of neon compared to the solar value. We propose that the material in the inter-binary system is significantly enhanced with neon. This makes its intrinsic X-ray spectrum virtually identical to RX J0806.3+1527. We re-access the X-ray luminosity of RX J1914.4+2456 and the implications of these results.