Following the Colour of the Low Mass X-ray Binary 4U 1820-30 with INTEGRAL

Abstract

The 4-200 keV spectral and temporal behaviour of the low mass X-ray binary 4U 1820-30 has been studied with INTEGRAL during 2003-2005. This source as been observed in both the soft (banana) and hard (island) spectral states. A high energy tail above 50 keV in the hard state has been revealed for the first time. This places the source in the category of X-ray bursters showing high-energy emission. The tail can be modeled as a soft power law component, with the photon index of ~ 2.4, on top of thermal Comptonization emission from a plasma with the electron temperature of kT_e ~ 6 keV and optical depth of $\tau ~ 4. Alternatively, but at a lower goodness of the fit, the hard-state broad band spectrum can be accounted for by emission from a hybrid, thermal-nonthermal, plasma. During the observations, the source spent most of the time in the soft state, as previously reported and the $\ge$4 keV spectra can be represented by thermal Comptonization with kT_e ~ 3 keV and $\tau ~ 6-7.