XMM-Newton observation of 4U 1820-30: Broad band spectrum and the contribution of the cold interstellar medium

Abstract

We present the analysis of the bright X-ray binary 4U 1820-30, based mainly on XMM-Newton-RGS data, but using complementary data from XMM-Epic, Integral, and Chandra-HETG, to investigate different aspects of the source. The broad band continuum is well fitted by a classical combination of black body and Comptonized emission. The continuum shape and the high flux of the source (L/L_Edd\sim0.16) are consistent with a "high state" of the source. We do not find significant evidence of iron emission at energies >=6.4 keV. The soft X-ray spectrum contain a number of absorption features. Here we focus on the cold-mildly ionized gas. The neutral gas column density is N_H\sim1.63x10^21 cm^-2. The detailed study of the oxygen and iron edge reveals that those elements are depleted, defined here as the ratio between dust and the total ISM cold phase, by a factor 0.20\pm0.02 and 0.87\pm0.14, respectively. Using the available dust models, the best fit points to a major contribution of Mg-rich silicates, with metallic iron inclusion. Although we find that a large fraction of Fe is in dust form, the fit shows that Fe-rich silicates are disfavored. The measured Mg:Fe ratio is 2.0\pm0.3. Interestingly, this modeling may point to a well studied dust constituent (GEMS), sometimes proposed as a silicate constituent in our Galaxy. Oxygen and iron are found to be slightly over- and under-abundant, respectively (1.23 and 0.85 times the solar value) along this line of sight. We also report the detection of two absorption lines, tentatively identified as part of an outflow of mildly ionized gas (\xi\sim-0.5) at a velocity of \sim1200 km/s.