1020005

We propose a dedicated INTEGRAL monitoring program of the ultra-compact X-ray binary and micro-quasar 4U0614+091 to study its emission properties in hard X-rays. This source is situated in a region of the sky well outside theGalactic bulge and is thus one of the low-mass X-ray binaries being least observed by INTEGRAL. However 4U0614+091 is an interesting target for several reasons: not only it harbours the closest active X-ray burster it exhibitsvariations at very different time scales and over the whole electromagnetic spectrum such as synchrotron jet emissionX-ray flaring states and thermonuclear X-ray bursts. Moreover the high energy persistent emission from the source ischaracterised by a particularly hard (non thermal) X-ray tail. Therefore we want to exploit the INTEGRAL instrumentationto survey the dynamical behaviour of the source and better describe its spectrum in hard X-rays. The monitoringcampaign we propose (for a total of 500 ks exposure) has been approved for AO-9 but have not yet been performed. Itwill indeed make it possible to follow the evolution of the long term persistent emission variability as well as toinvestigate the activity of shorter time scale processes. In fact 4U 0614+091 is also known for having exhibited usualshort X-ray bursts an hours-long superburst and several intermediately long bursts with superexpansion of the neutronstars photosphere. The proposed observing strategy will for instance allow us to relate the bursting behaviour of thesource to its broadband emission and especially to its flaring activity on time scales of days to weeks.The present proposal does also request joint XMM and INTEGRAL observations. [truncated! Please see actual data for full text]