The 2013 outburst of a transient very faint X-ray binary, 23 arcsec from Sgr A

We report observations using the Swift/XRT, NuSTAR, and Chandra X-ray telescopes of the transientX-raysourceCXOGCJ174540.0-290005duringits2013outburst.Duetoitslocation in the field of multiple observing campaigns targeting Sgr A*, this is one of the best-studied outbursts of a very faint X-ray binary (VFXB; peak LX < 10 36 erg s −1 ) yet recorded, with detections in 173 ks of X-ray observations over 50 d. VFXBs are of particular interest, due to their unusually low outburst luminosities and time-averaged mass transfer rates, which are hard to explain within standard accretion physics and binary evolution. The 2013 outburst of CXOGC J174540.0-290005 peaked at LX(2–10 keV) = 5.0 × 10 35 erg s −1 , and all data above 10 34 erg s −1 were well fitted by an absorbed power law of photon index ∼1.7, extending from 2 keV out to 70 keV. We discuss the implications of these observations for the accretion state of CXOGC J174540.0-290005.

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