Discovery of a quiescent neutron star binary in the globular cluster M 13

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 403, Number 1, May III 2003


Page(s)		L11 - L14
Section		Letters
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20030423

A&A 403, L11-L14 (2003)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20030423

Letter

Discovery of a quiescent neutron star binary in the globular cluster M 13

B. Gendre, D. Barret and N. Webb

Centre d'Étude Spatiale des Rayonnements, 9 Av. du Colonel Roche, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 04, France
(Received 7 February 2003 / Accepted 21 March 2003)

Abstract
We have discovered with XMM-Newton an X-ray source in the core of the globular cluster M 13, whose X-ray spectral properties suggest that it is a quiescent neutron star X-ray binary. The spectrum can be well fitted with a pure hydrogen atmosphere model, with $T_{\infty}=76\pm3$ eV, $R_{\infty}=12.8\pm0.4$ km and an X-ray luminosity of $7.3\pm0.6\times10^{32}$ ergs s ^-1. In the light of this result, we have discovered a strong correlation between the stellar encounter rate and the number of quiescent neutron stars found in the ten globular clusters observed so far by either XMM-Newton or Chandra. This result lends strong support to the idea that these systems are primarily produced by stellar encounters in the core of globular clusters.

Key words: globular clusters -- stars: neutron -- X-rays: general

Offprint request: D. Barret, Didier.Barret@cesr.fr

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