Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 461, Issue 3, Pages 2688-2701Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stw1382
Keywords
methods: observational; techniques: spectroscopic; X-rays: binaries
Categories
Funding
- Bundesministerium fur Wirtschaft und Technologie/Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (BMWI/DLR) [FKZ 50 OR 1408]
- Max Planck Society
- Dutch NWO Vidi grant
- DFG [HA 1850/28-1]
- [AYA2015-71042]
- [SGR2014-1073]
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We report on the identification of the new Galactic Centre (GC) transient Swift J174540.7-290015 as a likely low-mass X-ray binary located at only 16 arcsec from Sgr A(star). This transient was detected on 2016 February 6, during the Swift GC monitoring, and it showed long-term spectral variations compatible with a hard-to soft-state transition. We observed the field with XMM-Newton on February 26 for 35 ks, detecting the source in the soft state, characterized by a low level of variability and a soft X-ray thermal spectrum with a high energy tail (detected by INTEGRAL up to similar to 50 keV), typical of either accreting neutron stars or black holes. We observed: (i) a high column density of neutral absorbing material, suggesting that Swift J174540.7-290015 is located near or beyond the GC and; (ii) a sub-Solar iron abundance, therefore we argue that iron is depleted into dust grains. The lack of detection of Fe K absorption lines, eclipses or dipping suggests that the accretion disc is observed at a low inclination angle. Radio (Very Large Array) observations did not detect any radio counterpart to Swift J174540.7-290015. No evidence for X-ray or radio periodicity is found. The location of the transient was observed also in the near-infrared (near-IR) with gamma-ray burst optical near-IR detector at MPG/European Southern Observatory La Silla 2.2 m telescope and VLT/NaCo pre- and post-outburst. Within the Chandra error region, we find multiple objects that display no significant variations.
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