X-ray observations of EX Hydrae with the Einstein Solid State Spectrometer

Abstract

Einstein SSS X-ray observations of the eclipsing intermediate polar EX Hya are presented. The SSS data have a better resolution at energies extending below 2 keV than do the EXOSAT data. These data reveal the presence of a soft component with a temperature of about 0.74 keV. The phase-resolved data can be fitted to a model of two-temperature thermal plasma with a single absorber, with the result that only the normalization varies with phase. This suggests that part of the soft component might become occulted at minimum. If we assume that the reduction in the flux occurs due to the photoelectric absorption, we find that a high-density material covering only about 40 percent of the emission can fit the data equally well. The EXOSAT and Ginga data of this source favor the accretion curtain model rather than the occultation model. We modify the accretion curtain model by assuming that the modulation is caused by an absorber which partially covers the accreting column at the minimum of the 67-min pulse. An emission line at 1.72 keV is present in the data. The equivalent width of this line varies in phase with the continuum. We associate this line with Si fluorescence.