• Anna Bobrikova
  • Sofia V. Forsblom
  • Alessandro Di Marco
  • Fabio La Monaca
  • Juri Poutanen
  • Mason Ng
  • Swati Ravi
  • Jari J. E. Kajava
  • Francesco Ursini
  • Alexandra Veledina
  • Daniele Rogantini
  • Tuomo Salmi
  • Stefano Bianchi
  • Fiamma Capitanio
  • Chris Done
  • Sergio Fabiani
  • Andrea Gnarini
  • Jeremy Heyl
  • Philip Kaaret
  • Giorgio Matt
  • Fabio Muleri
  • Anagha P. Nitindala
  • John Rankin
  • Martin C. Weisskopf
  • Iván Agudo
  • Lucio A. Antonelli
  • Matteo Bachetti
  • Luca Baldini
  • Wayne H. Baumgartner
  • Ronaldo Bellazzini
  • Stephen D. Bongiorno
  • Raffaella Bonino
  • Alessandro Brez
  • Niccolò Bucciantini
  • Simone Castellano
  • Elisabetta Cavazzuti
  • Chien-Ting Chen
  • Stefano Ciprini
  • Enrico Costa
  • Alessandra De Rosa
  • Ettore Del Monte
  • Laura Di Gesu
  • Niccolò Di Lalla
  • Immacolata Donnarumma
  • Victor Doroshenko
  • Michal Dovčiak
  • Steven R. Ehlert
  • Teruaki Enoto
  • Yuri Evangelista
  • Riccardo Ferrazzoli
  • Javier A. García
  • Shuichi Gunji
  • Kiyoshi Hayashida
  • Wataru Iwakiri
  • Vladimir Karas
  • Fabian Kislat
  • Takao Kitaguchi
  • Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak
  • Henric Krawczynski
  • Luca Latronico
  • Ioannis Liodakis
  • Simone Maldera
  • Alberto Manfreda
  • Frédéric Marin
  • Andrea Marinucci
  • Alan P. Marscher
  • Herman L. Marshall
  • Francesco Massaro
  • Ikuyuki Mitsuishi
  • Tsunefumi Mizuno
  • Michela Negro
  • Chi-Yung Ng
  • Stephen L. O'Dell
  • Nicola Omodei
  • Chiara Oppedisano
  • Alessandro Papitto
  • George G. Pavlov
  • Abel L. Peirson
  • Matteo Perri
  • Melissa Pesce-Rollins
  • Pierre-Olivier Petrucci
  • Maura Pilia
  • Andrea Possenti
  • Simonetta Puccetti
  • Brian D. Ramsey
  • Ajay Ratheesh
  • Oliver J. Roberts
  • Roger W. Romani
  • Carmelo Sgrò
  • Patrick Slane
  • Paolo Soffitta
  • Gloria Spandre
  • Douglas A. Swartz
  • Toru Tamagawa
  • Fabrizio Tavecchio
  • Roberto Taverna
  • Yuzuru Tawara
  • Allyn F. Tennant
  • Nicholas E. Thomas
  • Francesco Tombesi
  • Alessio Trois
  • Sergey S. Tsygankov
  • Roberto Turolla
  • Jacco Vink
  • Kinwah Wu
  • Fei Xie
  • Silvia Zane
Weakly magnetized neutron stars in X-ray binaries show a complex phenomenology with several spectral components that can be associated with the accretion disk, the boundary, and/or a spreading layer, a corona, and a wind. Spectroscopic information alone, however, is not enough to distinguish these components. The analysis of the timing data revealed that most of the variability, and in particular, kilohertz quasi-period oscillations, are associated with the high-energy component that corresponds to the boundary and/or spreading layer. Additional information about the nature of the spectral components, and in particular, about the geometry of the emission region, can be provided by X-ray polarimetry. One of the objects of the class, a bright, persistent, and rather peculiar galactic Type I X-ray burster GX 13+1, was observed with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) and the XMM-Newton. Using the XMM-Newton data, we obtained the best-fit values for the continuum spectral parameters and detected strong absorption lines associated with the accretion disk wind. IXPE data showed the source to be significantly polarized in the 2-8 keV energy band, with an overall polarization degree (PD) of 1.4%±0.3% at a polarization angle (PA) of −2° ±6° (errors at the 68% confidence level). During the two-day long observation, we detected rotation of the PA by about 70° with the corresponding changes in the PD from 2% to nondetectable and then up to 5%. These variations in polarization properties are not accompanied by visible spectral state changes of the source. The energy-resolved polarimetric analysis showed a significant change in polarization, from being strongly dependent on energy at the beginning of the observation to being almost constant with energy in the later parts of the observation. As a possible interpretation, we suggest a constant polarization component, strong wind scattering, or a different polarization of the two main spectral components with an individually peculiar behavior. The rotation of the PA suggests a misalignment of the neutron star spin from the orbital axis.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberA170
JournalAstronomy and Astrophysics
Volume688
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Aug 2024

ID: 125281497