Suzaku Observation of the Symbiotic X-Ray Binary IGR J16194-2810

TL;DR

This study presents Suzaku X-ray observations of the symbiotic X-ray binary IGR J16194-2810, revealing its spectral components and comparing its properties with similar systems to understand accretion processes.

Contribution

First detailed spectral analysis of IGR J16194-2810 in the low/hard state, highlighting its small emission region and high seed-photon temperature compared to other LMXBs.

Findings

Detected 0.8-50 keV X-ray signal with Suzaku.

Identified two emission components below and above 2 keV.

Hard component modeled as Comptonized black-body with ~1 keV seed photons.

Abstract

We observed IGR J16194-2810 in the low/hard state with the Suzaku X-ray satellite in 2009. The source is a Symbiotic X-ray Binary (SyXB) classified as a category of a Low-Mass X-ray Binary (LMXB), since the system is composed of an M-type giant and probably a neutron star (NS). We detected the 0.8-50 keV signal with the XIS and HXD-PIN. The 2-10 keV luminosity was L ~ 7 x 10^34 erg s^-1 corresponding to ~10^-3 L_Edd, where L_Edd is the Eddington Luminosity of a 1.4 M_o NS and a source distance of 3.7 kpc is assumed. The luminosity is similar to those of past observations. The spectral analysis showed that there are two emission components below and above ~2 keV. The hard emission component is represented by a Comptonized black-body emission model with the seed-photon temperature ~1.0 keV and the emission radius ~700 m. The seed photon is considered to come from a small fraction of the NS surface. The soft component is reproduced by either a raw black-body (~0.4 keV, ~1.7 km) or a Comptonized emission (~0.1 keV, ~75 km). We think the origin is the emission from other part of the NS surface or the accreting stream. The physical parameters of the hard emission component of IGR J16194-2810 are compared with those of an SyXB (4U 1700+24) and LMXBs (Aql X-1 and 4U 0614+091). This comparison reveals that these SyXBs in the low/hard state have a smaller radiation region (< 1 km) on the NS surface with a higher seed-photon temperature (~1 keV) than the compared LMXBs.