A ~100 mHz QPO in the X-ray emission from IGR J17361-4441

Abstract

IGR J17361-4441 was discovered by INTEGRAL undergoing its first detectable X-ray outburst in 2011 and was initially classified as an accreting X-ray binary in the globular cluster NGC 6388. A reanalysis of the outburst data collected with INTEGRAL and Swift suggested that the enhanced X-ray emission from IGR J17361-4441 could have been caused by a rare tidal disruption event of a terrestrial-icy planet by a white dwarf. In this letter we report on the analysis of XMM-Newton data collected in 2011 during the outburst from IGR J17361-4441. Our analysis revealed the presence of a 100 mHz quasi-periodic oscillation in the X-ray emission from the source and confirmed the presence of a soft thermal component (kT~0.08 keV) in its spectrum. We discuss these findings in the context of the different possibilities proposed to explain the nature of IGR J17361-4441.