Broad-band spectral analysis of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar SAX J1748.9-2021

TL;DR

This study presents a detailed spectral analysis of SAX J1748.9-2021 during its 2015 outburst, revealing a soft spectral state with complex emission components and reflection features, and estimating the neutron star radius.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed broadband spectral analysis of SAX J1748.9-2021 during an outburst, identifying multiple emission components and reflection features, and estimating the neutron star radius.

Findings

Spectral components include two soft thermal, a cold thermal Comptonization, and a hard power-law tail.

The source was in a soft spectral state, unlike many similar pulsars.

Estimated neutron star radius is approximately 7-8 km.

Abstract

We analyzed a 115 ks XMM-Newton observation and the stacking of 8 days of INTEGRAL observations, taken during the raise of the 2015 outburst of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar SAX J1748.9-2021. The source showed numerous type-I burst episodes during the XMM-Newton observation, and for this reason we studied separately the persistent and burst epochs. We described the persistent emission with a combination of two soft thermal components, a cold thermal Comptonization component (~2 keV) and an additional hard X-ray emission described by a power-law (photon index ~2.3). The continuum components can be associated with an accretion disc, the neutron star (NS) surface and a thermal Comptonization emission coming out of an optically thick plasma region, while the origin of the high energy tail is still under debate. In addition, a number of broad (~0.1-0.4 keV) emission features likely associated to reflection processes have been observed in the XMM-Newton data. The estimated 1.0-50 keV unabsorbed luminosity of the source is ~5x10^37 erg/s, about 25% of the Eddington limit assuming a 1.4 solar mass NS. We suggest that the spectral properties of SAX J1748.9-2021 are consistent with a soft state, differently from many other accreting X-ray millisecond pulsars which are usually found in the hard state. Moreover, none of the observed type-I burst reached the Eddington luminosity. Assuming that the burst ignition and emission are produced above the whole NS surface, we estimate a neutron star radius of ~7-8 km, consistent with previous results.