The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a new observatory for very high-energy (VHE) gamma rays. CTA has ambitions science goals, for which it is necessary to achieve full-sky coverage, to improve the sensitivity by about an order of magnitude, to span about four decades of energy, from a few tens of GeV to above 100 TeV with enhanced angular and energy resolutions over existing VHE gamma-ray observatories. An international collaboration has formed with more than 1000 members from 27 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America. In 2010 the CTA Consortium completed a Design Study and started a three-year Preparatory Phase which leads to production readiness of CTA in 2014. In this paper we introduce the science goals and the concept of CTA, and provide an overview of the project. ?? 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Context. The physical mechanism responsible for the short outbursts in a recently recognised class of high mass X-ray binaries, the supergiant fast X-ray transients (SFXTs), is still unknown. Two main hypotheses have been proposed to date: the sudden accretion by the compact object of small ejections originating in a clumpy wind from the supergiant donor, or outbursts produced at (or near) the periastron passage in wide and eccentric orbits, to explain the low (∼10 32 erg s −1 ) quiescent emission. Neither proposed mechanisms explain the whole phenomenology of these sources. IGR J11215-5952, discovered in April 2005 by the INTEGRAL satellite, is a SFXT which undergoes an outburst every 329 days, a periodicity likely associated with the orbital period of the binary system. Aims. We propose a new explanation for the outburst mechanism, based on the X-ray observations of the unique SFXT known to display periodic outbursts, IGR J11215-5952. Methods. We performed three Target of Opportunity (ToO) Results. XMM-Newton observed the source on 2007 February 9, for 23 ks, at the peak of the outburst, while INT EGRAL started the observation two days later, failing to detect the source, which had already undergone the decaying phase of the fast outburst. XMM-Newton data show large variability, with a bright flare at the beginning of the observation (lasting about 1 h), followed by a lower intensity phase (about one order of magnitude fainter) with a large variability as well as low level flaring activity. The spin periodicity discovered by RXTE is confirmed, and a spin-phase spectral variability is observed and studied in detail. The Swift campaign performed in July 2007 reveals a second outburst on 2007 July 24, as bright as that observed about 165 days before. Conclusions. The new X-ray observations allow us to propose an alternative hypothesis for the outburst mechanism in SFXTs, linked to the possible presence of a second wind component, in the form of an equatorial disc from the supergiant donor. We discuss the applicability of the model to the short outburst durations of all other SFXTs, where a clear periodicity in the outbursts has not been found yet. The new outburst from IGR J11215-5952 observed in July suggests that the true orbital period is ∼165 days, instead of 329 days, as previously thought.
We have developed a stellar wind model for OB supergiants to investigate the effects of accretion from a clumpy wind on the luminosity and variability properties of high‐mass X‐ray binaries. Assuming that the clumps are confined by ram pressure of the ambient gas and exploring different distributions for their mass and radii, we computed the expected X‐ray light curves in the framework of the Bondi–Hoyle accretion theory, modified to take into account the presence of clumps. The resulting variability properties are found to depend not only on the assumed orbital parameters but also on the wind characteristics. We have then applied this model to reproduce the X‐ray light curves of three representative high‐mass X‐ray binaries: two persistent supergiant systems (Vela X−1 and 4U 1700−377) and the supergiant fast X‐ray transient IGR J11215−5952. The model can reproduce the observed light curves well, but requiring in all cases an overall mass loss from the supergiant about a factor of 3–10 smaller than the values inferred from ultraviolet lines studies that assume a homogeneous wind.
Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients (SFXTs) are a new class of High Mass Xray Binaries (HMXBs) discovered thanks to the monitoring of the Galactic plane performed with the INTEGRAL satellite in the last 5 years. These sources display short outbursts (significantly shorter than typical Be/X-ray binaries) with a peak luminosity of a few 10 36 erg s −1 . The quiescent level, measured only in a few sources, is around 10 32 erg s −1 . The X-ray spectral properties are reminiscent of those of accreting pulsars, thus it is likely that all the members of the new class are indeed HMXBs hosting a neutron star, although only two SFXTs have a measured pulse period, IGR J11215-5952 (∼187 s) and IGR J18410−0535 (∼4.7 s). Several competing mechanisms have been proposed to explain the shortness of these outbursts, mostly involving the structure of the wind from the supergiant companion. To characterize the properties of these sources on timescales of months (e.g. the quiescent level and the outburst recurrence), we are performing a monitoring campaign with Swift of four SFXTs (IGR J16479−4514, XTE J1739−302, IGR J17544−2619 and AX J1841.0−0536/IGR J18410−0535). We report on the first four months of Swift observations, started on 2007 October 26. We detect a low level X-ray activity in all four SFXTs which demonstrates that these transient sources accrete matter even outside their outbursts. This fainter X-ray activity is composed of many flares with a large flux variability, on timescales of thousands of seconds. The lightcurve variability is also evident on larger
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