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M. J. Stark, M. Saia (Lafayette College)
We have used the archive of data collected from Cygnus X-3 with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) to search for periodic or quasi-periodic oscillations and to look at the spectrum of the timing noise in these data. The presence of high frequency timing noise would put a strong constraint on the size of the region in which the X-ray emission is produced and imply a limit on the scattering depth of the atmosphere of the companion star. The presence of a periodic signal would be definitive proof that the compact object is a neutron star. The absence of a periodic signal will have to be interpreted in terms of the inferred scattering depth of the companion's atmosphere.
Discovery of quasi-periodic oscillations will help us understand the Cygnus X-3 system by analogy with other high energy astrophysical systems that produce quasi-periodic oscillation of various sorts through various mechanisms.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.lafayette.edu/~starkm/pub/aas-seattle-timing.html. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: starkm@lafayette.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #4
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.