NuStar and Swift Observations of the Fast Rotating Magnetized White Dwarf AE Aquarii.

摘要

AE Aquarii is a cataclysmic variable with the fastest known rotating magnetized white dwarf (P(sub spin) = 33.08 s). Compared to many intermediate polars, AE Aquarii shows a soft X-ray spectrum with a very low luminosity (LX (is) approximately 10(exp 31) erg per second). We have analyzed overlapping observations of this system with the NuSTAR and the Swift X-ray observatories in 2012 September. We find the 0.5-30 keV spectra to be well fitted by either an optically thin thermal plasma model with three temperatures of 0.75(+0.18 / ?0.45), 2.29(+0.96 / ?0.82), and 9.33 (+6.07 / ?2.18) keV, or an optically thin thermal plasma model with two temperatures of 1.00 (+0.34 / ?0.23) and 4.64 (+1.58 / ?0.84) keV plus a power-law component with photon index of 2.50 (+0.17 / ?0.23). The pulse profile in the 3-20 keV band is broad and approximately sinusoidal, with a pulsed fraction of 16.6% +/- 2.3%. We do not find any evidence for a previously reported sharp feature in the pulse profile.