Restless quiescence: thermonuclear flashes between transient X-ray outbursts

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Table 1:

Overview of the properties¹ of the observed flashes discussed in this paper.
Source	$F_{\rm bb,peak}$ (10^-8		$F_{\rm pers}$		$F_{\rm pers,bol}/F_{\rm bb,peak}$	$L_{\rm x,bol}$ (10³⁶	$\Delta t_{\rm last}$		$\Delta t_{\rm next}$
	erg cm^-2 s^-1)		(10^-10 erg cm^-2 s^-1)		$\equiv$ $L_{\rm x,bol}/L_{\rm Edd}$	erg s^-1)	(days)		(days)
Cen X-4	$\sim$ 120	[1]	<20^a (2-10 keV)	[1]	$\lesssim$ 0.0033	$\lesssim$ 0.7	>40	[1,2]	$\simeq$ 2	[1,3]
2S 1711-339	$3.0 \pm 1.0^b$	[4]	<0.7 (2-28 keV)	[4]	$\lesssim$ 0.0047	$\lesssim$ 1	$\sim$ 340	[4]	$\simeq$ 1440	[5]
GRS 1747-312	$\simeq$ 2.5^c	[6]	<0.6 (0.1-200 keV)	[6]	$\lesssim$ 0.0024	$\lesssim$ 0.5	$\simeq$ 26	[6]	$\simeq$ 28	[6]
IGR J17473-2721	$\simeq$ 11^d	[7]	<1.7 (2-10 keV)	[8]	$\lesssim$ 0.0031	$\lesssim$ 0.4	$\sim$ 960	[9,10]	$\simeq$ 2	[8,11]
2S 1803-245	$3.1 \pm 0.7$	[12]	<2^e (2-28 keV)	[4]	$\lesssim$ 0.013	$\lesssim$ 3	$\sim$ 7990	[13]	$\simeq$ 7	[12]
SAX J1808.4-3658	$25 \pm 2^c$	[14]	<3 (2-28 keV)	[14]	$\lesssim$ 0.0024	$\lesssim$ 0.5	$\simeq$ 17	[14]	$\simeq$ 543	[15]

^a Vela 5B 56 h upper limit; ^b highest peak flux among the flash sample in [4]; ^c photospheric radius-expansion flash; ^d peak flux observed during another flash reported by [7]; ^e no limits are quoted in [12]; we, therefore, assume the highest BeppoSAX/WFC flux upper limit from [4].
Note 1. In the first two columns we give the observed flash bolometric peak fluxes ( $F_{\rm bb,peak}$ ) and the 3 $\sigma$ upper limits on the flux around the flashes ( $F_{\rm pers}$ ). From these we infer the flash peak luminosities in terms of the Eddington luminosity ( $L_{\rm Edd}$ ), assuming $L_{\rm x,bol}/L_{\rm Edd} \equiv F_{\rm pers,bol}/F_{\rm bb,peak}$ (see Sect. 3), where $F_{\rm pers,bol}$ and $L_{\rm x,bol}$ are the bolometric pre-flash source flux and luminosity, respectively. Assuming $L_{\rm Edd} = 2 \times 10^{38}$ erg s (see Sect. 2) we derive an upper limit on $L_{\rm x,bol}$ . In the last two columns we provide the time since the last and to the next detected X-ray outburst with respect to the time of the flash, $\Delta t_{\rm last}$ and $\Delta t_{\rm next}$ , respectively. References are given in brackets: [1] this paper; [2] Conner et al. (1969); [3] Belian et al. (1972); [4] Cornelisse et al. (2002a); [5] Markwardt & Swank (2004); [6] in 't Zand et al. (2003b); [7] Altamirano et al. (2008); [8] Markwardt et al. (2008); [9] Grebenev et al. (2005); [10] Markwardt & Swank (2005); [11] Del Monte et al. (2008); [12] Cornelisse et al. (2007); [13] Jernigan (1976); [14] in 't Zand et al. (2001); [15] Marshall (1998).

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