No abstract

We present a simple method for including the oblateness of a rapidly rotating neutron star when fitting X-ray light curves. In previous work we showed that the oblateness induced by rotation at frequencies above 300 Hz produces a geometric effect which needs to be accounted for when modelling light curves to extract constraints on the neutron star's mass and radius. In our model X-rays are emitted from the surface of an oblate neutron star and propagate to the observer along geodesics of the Schwarzschild metric for a spherical neutron star. Doppler effects due to rotation are added in the same manner as in the case of a spherical neutron star. We show that this model captures the most important effects due to the neutron star's rotation. We also explain how the geometric oblateness effect can rival the Doppler effect for some emission geometries.

Ginga and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observations have allowed an unprecedented view of the recurrent systematic pulse shape changes associated with the 35-day cycle of Hercules X-1, a phenomenon currently unique among the known accretion-powered pulsars. We present observations of the pulse shape evolution. An explanation for the pulse evolution in terms of a freely precessing neutron star is reviewed and shown to have several major difficulties in explaining the observed pulse evolution pattern. Instead, we propose a phenomenological model for the pulse evolution based upon an occultation of the pulse emitting region by the tilted, inner edge of a precessing accretion disk. The systematic and repeating pulse shape changes require a resolved occultation of the pulse emission region. The observed pulse profile motivates the need for a pulsar beam consisting of a composite coaxial pencil and fan beam but the observed evolution pattern requires the fan beam to be focused around the neutron star and beamed in the antipodal direction. The spectral hardness of the pencil beam component suggests an origin at the magnetic polar cap, with the relatively softer fan beam emission produced by backscattering from within the accretion column, qualitatively consistent with several theoretical models for X-ray emission from the accretion column of an accreting neutron star.

The Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) is one of the payloads in AS-TROSAT, the first Indian Space Observatory. The UVIT instrument has two 375 mm telescopes: one for the far-ultraviolet (FUV) channel (1300-1800Å), and the other for the near-ultraviolet (NUV) channel (2000-3000Å) and the visible (VIS) channel (3200-5500Å). UVIT is primarily designed for simultaneous imaging in the two ultraviolet channels with spatial resolution better than 1.8 , along with provision for slit-less spectroscopy in the NUV and FUV channels.The results of in-orbit calibrations of UVIT are presented in this paper.

No abstract