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Swift/BAT Observes a Thermonuclear X-ray Burst from SAX J1712.6-3739

ATel #2717; T. E. Strohmayer (NASA/GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (UMBC/NASA GSFC)
on 2 Jul 2010; 20:46 UT
Credential Certification: Tod Strohmayer (tod.strohmayer@nasa.gov)

Subjects: X-ray, Binary, Neutron Star

Referred to by ATel #: 3663

On July 1, 2010 at 14:55:40.7 (UT) the Swift/BAT triggered on an event whose on-board position was consistent with the known low mass X-ray binary (LMXB) SAX J1712.6-3739 (trigger number 426405). Analysis of the BAT event data indicates that the burst is only detected in the 10 - 25 keV band, has a duration of approximately 20 s and a flux history typical of thermonuclear X-ray bursts. The peak flux (2 s bins) in the 10 - 28 keV band is estimated at approximately 4 x 10^-8 ergs/cm^2/s, which is close to the Eddington luminosity for a canonical neutron star if placed at the distance to the Galactic center (8 kpc). We conclude that this event is a thermonuclear burst from SAX J1712.6-3739. The only previous reports of X-ray bursts from this source include an event from 1999 September observed with the BeppoSAX Wide Field Camera (Cocchi et al., IAUC 7247 ) with properties similar to the BAT event reported here, and an event suggested to be an intermediate duration burst based on RXTE/ASM data (Kuulkers, Atel #2141).