TY - JOUR
T1 - The Galactic transient sky with Swift
AU - Kennea, Jamie A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by NASA grant NAS5-00136 . This work made use of data supplied by the UK Swift Science Data Centre at the University of Leicester. We acknowledge the use of public data from the Swift data archive. This research has made use of the XRT Data Analysis Software (XRTDAS) developed under the responsibility of the ASI Science Data Center (ASDC), Italy.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V.
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/9/1
Y1 - 2015/9/1
N2 - The unique capabilities of Swift that make it ideal for discovery and follow-up of Gamma-Ray bursts also make it the ideal mission for discovery and monitoring of X-ray Transients in the Milky Way and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The Burst Alert Telescope allows for detection of new transient outbursts, the automated follow-up capabilities of Swift allow for rapid observation and localization of the new transient in X-rays and optical/UV bands, and Swift's rapid slewing capabilities allow for low-overhead short observations to be obtained, opening up the possibility of regular, sensitive, long term monitoring of transient outbursts that are not possible with other currently operational X-ray missions. In this paper I describe the methods of discovery of X-ray transients utilizing Swift's BAT and also collaboration with the MAXI telescope. I also detail two examples of X-ray transient science enabled by Swift: Swift discovery and monitoring observations of MAXI J1659-152, a Black Hole candidate Low Mass X-ray Binary in the Galactic Halo, which has the shortest known orbital period of any such system; and Swift monitoring of IGR J00569-7226, an edge on Be/X-ray binary that displayed an outburst in 2013 and 2014, and which monitoring by Swift allowed for detection of dips, eclipses and the determination of the orbital parameters, utilizing a measurement of Doppler shifts in the pulsar period.
AB - The unique capabilities of Swift that make it ideal for discovery and follow-up of Gamma-Ray bursts also make it the ideal mission for discovery and monitoring of X-ray Transients in the Milky Way and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The Burst Alert Telescope allows for detection of new transient outbursts, the automated follow-up capabilities of Swift allow for rapid observation and localization of the new transient in X-rays and optical/UV bands, and Swift's rapid slewing capabilities allow for low-overhead short observations to be obtained, opening up the possibility of regular, sensitive, long term monitoring of transient outbursts that are not possible with other currently operational X-ray missions. In this paper I describe the methods of discovery of X-ray transients utilizing Swift's BAT and also collaboration with the MAXI telescope. I also detail two examples of X-ray transient science enabled by Swift: Swift discovery and monitoring observations of MAXI J1659-152, a Black Hole candidate Low Mass X-ray Binary in the Galactic Halo, which has the shortest known orbital period of any such system; and Swift monitoring of IGR J00569-7226, an edge on Be/X-ray binary that displayed an outburst in 2013 and 2014, and which monitoring by Swift allowed for detection of dips, eclipses and the determination of the orbital parameters, utilizing a measurement of Doppler shifts in the pulsar period.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84941933136&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84941933136&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jheap.2015.03.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jheap.2015.03.006
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84941933136
VL - 7
SP - 105
EP - 110
JO - Journal of High Energy Astrophysics
JF - Journal of High Energy Astrophysics
SN - 2214-4048
ER -