SLX 1746-311 in outburst Original Research Article

We report on RXTE-PCA observations of SLX 1746-311 during a ∼100 day outburst in April 2003. We present the 3–20 keV PCA energy spectra of the source and study evolution of spectral parameters. The burst spectrum is soft with Tin ∼1.3 keV at the beginning of the outburst. There is a clear evidence of a hard power law component throughout the outburst. There is also an indication of a broad iron line. The source exhibits three state transitions with considerable change in the hardness ratio at low count rates. We discuss the possible scenario under which this unusual behaviour can be explained.