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arxiv: 2401.13058 · v2 · pith:54GQWUXSnew · submitted 2024-01-23 · 🌌 astro-ph.HE

Discovery of a strong rotation of the X-ray polarization angle in the galactic burster GX 13+1

Anna Bobrikova , Sofia V. Forsblom , Alessandro Di Marco , Fabio La Monaca , Juri Poutanen , Mason Ng , Swati Ravi , Vladislav Loktev
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Jari J. E. Kajava Francesco Ursini Alexandra Veledina Daniele Rogantini Tuomo Salmi Stefano Bianchi Fiamma Capitanio Chris Done Sergio Fabiani Andrea Gnarini Jeremy Heyl Philip Kaaret Giorgio Matt Fabio Muleri Anagha P. Nitindala John Rankin Martin C. Weisskopf Ivan Agudo Lucio A. Antonelli Matteo Bachetti Luca Baldini Wayne H. Baumgartner Ronaldo Bellazzini Stephen D. Bongiorno Raffaella Bonino Alessandro Brez Niccolo Bucciantini Simone Castellano Elisabetta Cavazzuti Chien-Ting Chen Stefano Ciprini Enrico Costa Alessandra De Rosa Ettore Del Monte Laura Di Gesu Niccolo Di Lalla Immacolata Donnarumma Victor Doroshenko Michal Dovciak Steven R. Ehlert Teruaki Enoto Yuri Evangelista Riccardo Ferrazzoli Javier A. Garcia Shuichi Gunji Kiyoshi Hayashida Wataru Iwakiri Svetlana G. Jorstad Vladimir Karas Fabian Kislat Takao Kitaguchi Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak Henric Krawczynski Luca Latronico Ioannis Liodakis Simone Maldera Alberto Manfreda Frederic Marin Andrea Marinucci Alan P. Marscher Herman L. Marshall Francesco Massaro Ikuyuki Mitsuishi Tsunefumi Mizuno Michela Negro Chi-Yung Ng Stephen L. O'Dell Nicola Omodei Chiara Oppedisano Alessandro Papitto George G. Pavlov Abel L. Peirson Matteo Perri Melissa Pesce-Rollins Pierre-Olivier Petrucci Maura Pilia Andrea Possenti Simonetta Puccetti Brian D. Ramsey Ajay J. Ratheesh Oliver Roberts Roger W. Romani Carmelo Sgro Patrick Slane Paolo Soffitta Gloria Spandre Douglas A. Swartz Toru Tamagawa Fabrizio Tavecchio Roberto Taverna Yuzuru Tawara Allyn F. Tennant Nicholas E. Thomas Francesco Tombesi Alessio Trois Sergey S. Tsygankov Roberto Turolla Jacco Vink Kinwah Wu Fei Xie Silvia Zane
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classification 🌌 astro-ph.HE
keywords polarizationx-raycomponentsenergyobservationrotationspectralstrong
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Weakly magnetized neutron stars in X-ray binaries show complex phenomenology with several spectral components that can be associated with the accretion disk, boundary and/or spreading layer, a corona, and a wind. Spectroscopic information alone is, however, not enough to disentangle these components. Additional information about the nature of the spectral components and in particular the geometry of the emission region can be provided by X-ray polarimetry. One of the objects of the class, a bright, persistent, and rather peculiar galactic Type I X-ray burster was observed with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission Newton (XMM-Newton). Using the XMM-Newton data we estimated the current state of the source as well as detected strong absorption lines associated with the accretion disk wind. IXPE data showed the source to be significantly polarized in the 2-8 keV energy band with the overall polarization degree (PD) of 1.4% at a polarization angle (PA) of -2 degrees (errors at 68% confidence level). During the two-day long observation, we detected rotation of the PA by about 70 degrees with the corresponding changes in the PD from 2% to non-detectable and then up to 5%. These variations in polarization properties are not accompanied by visible changes in spectroscopic characteristics. The energy-resolved polarimetric analysis showed a significant change in polarization, from being strongly dependent on energy at the beginning of the observation to being almost constant with energy in the later parts of the observation. As a possible interpretation, we suggest the presence of a constant component of polarization, strong wind scattering, or different polarization of the two main spectral components with individually peculiar behavior. The rotation of the PA suggests a 30-degree misalignment of the neutron star spin from the orbital axis.

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