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A.P. Smale (USRA, NASA/GSFC), M.J. Church, M. Balucinska-Church (U. Birmingham, UK)
We present striking results from RXTE observations of the 21-hr low mass X-ray binary X1624-490, showing five complex dips in unprecedented detail. For the first time, dipping is detected up to 15 keV. Prominent flares are also observed in the light curves, limited to energies above 8 keV. Spectra selected by intensity during dip episodes can be well fit with a two-component model consisting of a point-like blackbody from the neutron star and progressive covering of an extended Comptonized region, presumably an accretion disk corona (ADC), corrected for photons scattered into and out of the X-ray beam by a dust halo. The timescales of dip ingress and egress indicate that the envelope of material absorbing the ADC has smaller angular size than the ADC itself, and that the ADC is likely limited to a height-to-radius ratio of 10%, rather than being spherical in extent. In addition, we have analyzed 4.5 yrs of RXTE All Sky Monitor coverage to derive the first accurate orbital ephemeris for X1624-490 with phase zero (the time of dip centers) well-described by the relation 2450088.63918(69) + N x 0.869907(12) (JD).
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: alan@osiris.gsfc.nasa.gov