During AO 18 our team discovered the presence of two IR bursts laggingthermonuclear Type-I X-ray bursts\: this allowed us to put the first constraintson the orbital period of the source 4U 1728-34. Moreover, the profiles of thenewly discovered IR bursts showed intriguing .dips. just after the onset of theX-ray bursts. The aim of this proposal is to use the novel method of X-ray-IRburst lag to measure the orbital period of 4U 1728-34 and two other sources, andto quantify the presence of .dips. in their IR reverberation, signatures thatwould indicate burst-induced changes in the geometry of the accretion flow. Wetherefore ask to perform 4 (total 56ks) XMM pointings to be matched by 4 (total14h) HAWK-I@VLT observations of 4U 1728-34, 4U 1705-44 and 4U 1636-53.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2021-09-10T00:00:53Z/2021-09-10T08:12:39Z
Version
19.17_20220121_1250
Mission Description
The European Space Agencys (ESA) X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) was launched by an Ariane 504 on December 10th 1999. XMM-Newton is ESAs second cornerstone of the Horizon 2000 Science Programme. It carries 3 high throughput X-ray telescopes with an unprecedented effective area, and an optical monitor, the first flown on a X-ray observatory. The large collecting area and ability to make long uninterrupted exposures provide highly sensitive observations. Since Earths atmosphere blocks out all X-rays, only a telescope in space can detect and study celestial X-ray sources. The XMM-Newton mission is helping scientists to solve a number of cosmic mysteries, ranging from the enigmatic black holes to the origins of the Universe itself. Observing time on XMM-Newton is being made available to the scientific community, applying for observational periods on a competitive basis.
European Space Agency, Dr Federico Vincentelli, 2022, 'Using the newly discovered X-ra- IR Type-I bursts to probe jet-disk interaction', 19.17_20220121_1250, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.57780/esa-atimc5y
