Observations of short-duration X-ray transients by WATCH on Granat

DOI: 
Publication date: 
01/07/1999
Main author: 
Castro-Tirado, AJ
IAA authors: 
Authors: 
Castro-Tirado, AJ; Brandt, S; Lund, N; Sunyaev, R
Journal: 
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
Publication type: 
Article
Volume: 
347
Pages: 
927-931
Number: 
Abstract: 
During 1990-92, the WATCH all-sky X-ray monitor on Granat discovered six short-duration X-ray transients. In this paper we discuss their possible relationship to peculiar stars. Only one of the fast (few hours) X-ray transients (GRS 1100-771) might be tentatively ascribed to a superflare arising from a young stellar object in the Chamaeleon I star-forming cloud. At the distance of similar to 150 pc, L-x = 1.35 x 10(34) erg s(-1). (8-15 keV), or 2.6 x 10(34) erg s(-1) (0.1-2.4 keV) assuming a thermal spectrum with kT similar to 10 keV, a temperature higher than those previously seen in T Tauri stars (Tsuboi et al. 1998). The peak X-ray luminosity is at least 2 times higher than that derived for the protostar IRS 43 (Grosso et al. 1997) which would make - to our knowledge- the strongest flare ever seen in a YSO. However, the possibility of GRS 1100-771 being an isolated neutron star unrelated to the cloud cannot be excluded, given the relatively large error box provided by WATCH. Regarding the longer duration (similar to 1 day) X-ray transients, none of them seem to be related to known objects. We suggest that the latter are likely to have originated from compact objects in low-mass or high-mass X-ray binaries, similarly to XTE J0421+560.
Database: 
WOK
SCOPUS
Keywords: 
stars : flare; stars : pre-main sequence; ISM : individual objects : Chamaeleon I cloud; X-rays : bursts; X-rays : stars