8th HEAD Meeting, 8-11 September, 2004
Session 25 X-ray Binaries and White Dwarfs
Poster, Friday, September 10, 2004, 9:00am-10:00pm

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[25.05] Exploring SMC X-1 out of eclipse with Chandra and XMM

R. C. Hickox, S. D. Vrtilek (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

We present analysis of Chandra ACIS and XMM-Newton EPIC observations of the high mass X-ray pulsar SMC X-1, and compare to previous ROSAT and ASCA data. This source has complex variations with time and a soft spectral component that is likely due to reprocessing of hard X-rays by accreting material. We find that high-state observations consistently show a phase offset between the soft and hard pulse profiles. However, the soft pulses differ in the Chandra and XMM observations, possibly due to varying geometry of the illuminated accreting material that produces the soft component. We examine this scenario using pulse phase-resolved spectroscopy and by considering various geometrical models for the accreting gas.


The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: rhickox@cfa.harvard.edu

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.