X-ray Variability in the Symbiotic Binary RT Cru: Principal Component Analysis

TL;DR

This study uses principal component analysis on X-ray data from RT Cru to identify the main spectral components responsible for variability and spectral state transitions in this symbiotic binary.

Contribution

It applies PCA to multi-mission X-ray data to disentangle spectral components driving variability and state changes in RT Cru, a challenging symbiotic binary.

Findings

Spectral hardness transition driven by changes in absorption and continuum.

Principal components include variable soft excess, thermal emission, and continuum.

Flickering behavior linked to thermal plasma emission variations.

Abstract

Hard X-ray-emitting ($\delta$-type) symbiotic binaries, which exhibit a strong hard X-ray excess, have posed a challenge to our understanding of accretion physics in degenerate dwarfs. RT Cru, which is a member of the $\delta$-type symbiotics, shows stochastic X-ray variability. Timing analyses of X-ray observations from XMM-Newton and NuSTAR, which we consider here, indicate hourly fluctuations, in addition to a spectral transition from 2007 to a harder state in 2012 seen with Suzaku observations. To trace the nature of X-ray variability, we analyze the multi-mission X-ray data using principal component analysis (PCA), which determines the spectral components that contribute most to the flickering behavior and the hardness transition. The Chandra HRC-S/LETG and XMM-Newton EPIC-pn data provide the primary PCA components, which may contain some variable emission features, especially in the soft excess. Additionally, the absorbing column (first order with 50%), along with the source continuum (20%), and a third component (9%) - which likely accounts for thermal emission in the soft band - are the three principal components found in the Suzaku XIS1 observations. The PCA components of the NuSTAR data also correspond to the continuum and possibly emission features. Our findings suggest that the spectral hardness transition between the two Suzaku observations is mainly due to changes in the absorbing material and X-ray continuum, while some changes in the thermal plasma emission may result in flickering-type variations.