X-ray Binary SED Catalog



This project was supported in part by a grant from NASA through the Astrophysics Data Analysis program and a grant from the Smithsonian Institution Endowment program.

XRB SED Guidelines Page

    

telescopes  
 

This site provides spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of X-ray binaries from radio to X-ray energy range as a function of binary type (BH, NS, HMXB, LMXB), orbital phase, superorbital phase, and aperiodic X-ray spectral states. Superorbital phase and X-ray spectral states are determined using RXTE ASM lightcurves of the individual sources. X-ray binaries (XRBs) owe their prominence to one of the most efficient energy release mechanisms known: accretion onto a compact object. Accretion processes are ubiquitous in the Universe and are associated with star formation, interacting main sequence binaries, active galactic nuclei, and quasars. XRBs are the most nearby, easily studied example of the accretion process. They are of additional interest as the endpoints of stellar evolution and serve as laboratories for the study of matter under extreme conditions.

What are X-ray Binaries?
A brief definition of X-ray Binaries

Why Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs)?
The need for SEDs

X-ray Spectral States
RXTE


Instruments of Interest





This page last updated January 7 th,  2021