NICER Detects a Soft X-Ray Kilohertz Quasi-periodic Oscillation in 4U 0614+09

• Main Authors: Bult, Peter (Author), Altamirano, Diego (Author), Arzoumanian, Zaven (Author), Cackett, Edward M. (Author), Chakrabarty, Deepto (Contributor), Doty, John (Author), Enoto, Teruaki (Author), Gendreau, Keith C. (Author), Guillot, Sebastien (Author), Homan, Jeroen (Author), Jaisawal, Gaurava K. (Author), Lamb, Frederick K. (Author), Ludlam, Renee M. (Author), Mahmoodifar, Simin (Author), Markwardt, Craig (Author), Okajima, Takashi (Author), Price, Sam (Author), Strohmayer, Tod E. (Author), Winternitz, Luke (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics (Contributor), MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Astronomical Society, 2019-03-15T17:59:13Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

We report on the detection of a kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). Analyzing approximately 165 ks of NICER exposure on the X-ray burster 4U 0614+09, we detect multiple instances of a single-peak upper kHz QPO, with centroid frequencies that range from 400 to 750 Hz. We resolve the kHz QPO as a function of energy, and measure, for the first time, the QPO amplitude below 2 keV. We find the fractional amplitude at 1 keV is on the order of 2% rms, and discuss the implications for the QPO emission process in the context of Comptonization models. Key words: accretion, accretion disks - stars: neutron - X-rays: binaries - X-rays: individual (4U 0614+09