Observations of supergiant fast X-ray transients with LOFT

Abstract

Supergiant fast X-ray transients are a subclass of high mass X-ray binaries displaying a peculiar and still poorly understood extreme variability in the X-ray domain. These sources undergo short sporadic outbursts (L∼ 10³⁶-10³⁷ erg s^-1), lasting few ks at the most, and spend a large fraction of their time in an intermediate luminosity state at about L∼ 10³³-10³⁴ erg s^-1. The sporadic and hardly predictable outbursts of supergiant fast X-ray transients were so far best discovered by large field of view (FOV) coded-mask instruments; their lower luminosity states require, instead, higher sensitivity focusing instruments to be studied in sufficient details. In this contribution, we provide a summary of the current knowledge on supergiant fast X-ray transients and explore the contribution that the new space mission concept LOFT, the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing, will be able to provide in the field of research of these objects.