Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of the low-luminosity X-ray pulsators SAX J1324.4-6200 and SAX J1452.8-5949

Abstract

We present results from our Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of two low-luminosity X-ray pulsators SAX J1324.4-6200 and SAX J1452.8-5949 which have spin periods of 172 and 437 s, respectively. The XMM-Newton spectra for both sources can be fitted well with a simple power-law model of photon index, Γ ~ 1.0. A blackbody model can equally well fit the spectra with a temperature, kT ~ 2 keV, for both sources. During our XMM-Newton observations, SAX J1324.4-6200 is detected with coherent X-ray pulsations at a period of 172.86 +/- 0.02 s while no pulsations with a pulse fraction greater than 18 per cent (at 95 per cent confidence level) in 0.2-12 keV energy band are detected in SAX J1452.8-5949. The spin period of SAX J1324.4-6200 is found to be increasing on a time-scale of which would suggest that the accretor is a neutron star and not a white dwarf. Using subarcsec spatial resolution of the Chandra telescope, possible counterparts are seen for both sources in the near-infrared images obtained with the son of infrared spectrometer and array camera (SOFI) instrument on the New Technology Telescope. The X-ray and near-infrared properties of SAX J1324.4-6200 suggest it to be a persistent high-mass accreting X-ray pulsar at a distance <=8 kpc. We identify the near-infrared counterpart of SAX J1452.8-5949 to be a late-type main-sequence star at a distance <=10 kpc, thus ruling out SAX J1452.8-5949 to be a high-mass X-ray binary. However, with the present X-ray and near-infrared observations, we cannot make any further conclusive conclusion about the nature of SAX J1452.8-5949.