Observation of X-ray transient XTE J1748−288 by the Indian X-ray astronomy experiment

Abstract

The observations of a newly discovered X-ray transient source XTE J1748-288 were made in the energy band 2 - 18 keV with the Indian X-ray Astronomy Experiment(IXAE) on the IRS-P3 satellite during 1998, June 14-25. The source count rate declined gradually with an exponential decay time of 19 ± 1.6 days. The X-ray light curves showed no significant intensity variations on short time scales (<= 10s). The power density spectrum obtained from timing analysis of the data shows no quasi-periodic oscillations in the frequency range of 0.002 Hz to 5 Hz. From the observed X-ray and radio characteristics, it is suggested that the X-ray source in XTE J1748-288 is more likely to be a black hole rather than a neutron star.