Soft X-ray transient

Soft X-ray transients (SXTs), also known as X-ray novae and black hole X-ray transients, are composed of a compact object (most commonly a black hole but sometimes a neutron star) and some type of "normal", low-mass star (i.e. a star with a mass of some fraction of the Sun's mass). These objects show dramatic changes in their X-ray emission, probably produced by variable transfer of mass from the normal star to the compact object, a process called accretion. In effect the compact object "gobbles up" the normal star, and the X-ray emission can provide the best view of how this process occurs. The "soft" name arises because in many cases there is strong soft (i.e. low-energy) X-ray emission from an accretion disk close to the compact object, although there are exceptions which are quite hard. Soft X-ray transients Cen X-4 and Aql X-1 were discovered by Hakucho, Japan's first X-ray astronomy satellite to be X-ray bursters. During active accretion episodes, called "outbursts", SXTs are bright (with typical luminosities above 1037 erg/s). Between these episodes, when the accretion is absent, SXTs are usually very faint, or even unobservable; this is called the "quiescent" state. In the "outburst" state the brightness of the system increases by a factor of 100–10000 in both X-rays and optical. During outburst, a bright SXT is the brightest object in the X-ray sky, and the apparent magnitude is about 12. The SXTs have outbursts with intervals of decades or longer, as only a few systems have shown two or more outbursts. The system fades back to quiescence in a few months. During the outburst, the X-ray spectrum is "soft" or dominated by low-energy X-rays, hence the name Soft X-ray transients.