On the evolution of the inner disk radius with flux in the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary Serpens X-1

TL;DR

This study analyzes Suzaku X-ray observations of Serpens X-1, revealing a relativistic iron line that indicates a stable inner disk radius around 8 gravitational radii, unaffected by flux variations.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the inner disk radius evolution with flux in Serpens X-1 using relativistic reflection modeling.

Findings

Inner disk radius is approximately 8 Rg.

Inner radius remains stable across flux states 0.4-0.6 L/L_Edd.

Disk truncation likely caused by boundary layer, not magnetic field.

Abstract

We analyze the latest \emph{Suzaku} observation of the bright neutron star low-mass X-ray binary Serpens X-1 taken in 2013 October and 2014 April. The observation was taken using the burst mode and only suffered mild pile-up effects. A broad iron line is clearly detected in the X-ray spectrum. We test different models and find that the iron line is asymmetric and best interpreted by relativistic reflection. The relativistically broadened iron line is generally believed to originate from the innermost regions of the accretion disk, where strong gravity causes a series of special and general relativistic effects. The iron line profile indicates an inner radius of $\sim8$ $R_{\rm G}$, which gives an upper limit on the size of the neutron star. The asymmetric iron line has been observed in a number of previous observations, which gives several inner radius measurements at different flux states. We find that the inner radius of Serpens X-1 does not evolve significantly over the range of $L/L_{\rm Edd}\sim0.4-0.6$, and the lack of flux dependence of the inner radius implies that the accretion disk may be truncated outside the innermost stable circular orbit by the boundary layer rather than the stellar magnetic field.