Discovery of X-ray flaring activity in the Arches cluster

TL;DR

This study reports the discovery of a significant X-ray flare in the Arches cluster, revealing insights into stellar activity and wind interactions over an 8-year observational period.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of a transient X-ray flare in the Arches cluster, linking stellar activity to observed X-ray variability.

Findings

70% increase in X-ray emission during flare

Flare duration longer than four days

No change in temperature or column density during flare

Abstract

We present a study of the Arches cluster based on XMM-Newton observations performed over the past 8 years. Unexpectedly, we find that the X-ray emission associated with the cluster experienced a marked brightening in March/April 2007. We investigate the origin of both the X-ray continuum emission emanating from the star cluster and the flare. To study the time variability of the total X-ray flux, we stacked the PN and MOS data of observations performed within a time interval of a few days leading to the detection of the flaring episode. We then constructed two spectral datasets, one corresponding to the flare interval (March/April 2007) and another to the normal quiescent state of the source. The X-ray light curve of the Arches cluster shows, with high significance (8.6 sigma), a 70% increase in the X-ray emission in the March/April 2007 timeframe followed by a decline over the following year to the pre-flare level; the short-term duration of the flare is constrained to be longer than four days. The temperature and the line-of-sight column density inferred from the flare spectrum do not differ from those measured in the normal activity state of the cluster, suggesting that the flux enhancement is thermal in origin. We attribute the X-ray variability to in situ stellar activity: early-type stars may be responsible for the flare via wind collisions, whereas late-type stars may contribute by means of magnetic reconnection. These two possibilities are discussed.