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Register a new userNuSTAR X-ray spectrum of Be-X-ray pulsar Swift J1845.7-0037: Bulk and thermal Comptonization of cyclotron seed photons in the accretion column
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Filippos Koliopanos Dr
Publication date
2020
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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Aims: Spectral and temporal analysis of the NuSTAR observation Galactic Be-XRB Swift J1845.7-0037. during its recent outburst. Methods: For the spectral analysis we use both phenomenological and physics-based models. We employ an often used empirical model to identify the main characteristics of the spectral shape in relation to nominal spectral characteristics of X-ray pulsars. Additionally, we used the latest version of Bulk & Thermal comptonization model (BW), to assess the validity of the spectral components required by the empirical model and to investigate the origin of the hard X-ray emission. We also analyzed the source light-curve, studying the pulse shape at different energy ranges and tracking the spectral evolution with pulse phase by using the model independent hardness ratio (HR). Results: We find that while both the empirical and physical (BW) spectral models can produce good spectral fits, the BW model returns physically plausible best-fit values for the source parameters and does not require any additional spectral components to the non-thermal, accretion column emission. The BW model also yielded an estimation of the neutron star magnetic field placing it in the 10^12G range. Conclusions: Our results, show that the spectral and temporal characteristics of the source emission are consistent with the scattering processes expected for radiation dominated shocks within the accretion column of highly magnetized accreting neutron stars. We further indicate that physically-derived spectral models such as BW, can be used to tentatively infer fundamental source parameters, in the absence of more direct observational signatures.
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The hard X-ray transient source Swift J1845.7-0037 was discovered in 2012 by Swift/BAT. However, at that time no dedicated observations of the source were performed. On Oct 2019 the source became active again, and X-ray pulsations with a period of ~199s were detected with Swift/XRT. This triggered follow-up observations with NuSTAR. Here we report on the timing and spectral analysis of the source properties using NuSTAR and Swift/XRT. The main goal was to confirm pulsations and search for possible cyclotron lines in the broadband spectrum of the source to probe its magnetic field. Despite highly significant pulsations with period of 207.379(2) were detected, no evidence for a cyclotron line was found in the spectrum of the source. We therefore discuss the strength of the magnetic field based on the source flux and the detection of the transition to the cold-disc accretion regime during the 2012 outburst. Our conclusion is that, most likely, the source is a highly magnetized neutron star with B 1e13G at a large distance of d~10 kpc. The latter one consistent with the non-detection of a cyclotron line in the NuSTAR energy band.
The high-mass X-ray binary and accreting X-ray pulsar IGR J16393-4643 was observed by NuSTAR in the 3-79 keV energy band for a net exposure time of 50 ks. We present the results of this observation which enabled the discovery of a cyclotron resonant scattering feature with a centroid energy of 29.3(+1.1/-1.3) keV. This allowed us to measure the magnetic field strength of the neutron star for the first time: B = (2.5+/-0.1)e12 G. The known pulsation period is now observed at 904.0+/-0.1 s. Since 2006, the neutron star has undergone a long-term spin-up trend at a rate of P = -2e-8 s/s (-0.6 s per year, or a frequency derivative of nu = 3e-14 Hz/s ). In the power density spectrum, a break appears at the pulse frequency which separates the zero slope at low frequency from the steeper slope at high frequency. This addition of angular momentum to the neutron star could be due to the accretion of a quasi-spherical wind, or it could be caused by the transient appearance of a prograde accretion disk that is nearly in corotation with the neutron star whose magnetospheric radius is around 2e8 cm.
A large fraction of accreting black hole and neutron stars systems present clear evidence of the reprocessing of X-rays in the atmosphere of an optically-thick accretion disk. The main hallmarks of X-ray reflection include fluorescent K-shell emission lines from iron ($sim 6.4-6.9$ keV), the absorption iron K-edge ($sim 7-9$ keV), and a broad featureless component known as the Compton hump ($sim 20-40$ keV). This Compton hump is produced as the result of the scattering of high-energy photons ($E gtrsim 10$ keV) of the relatively colder electrons ($T_e sim 10^5-10^7$ K) in the accretion disk, in combination with photoelectric absorption from iron. The treatment of this process in most current models of ionized X-ray reflection has been done using an approximated Gaussian redistribution kernel. This approach works sufficiently well up to $sim100$ keV, but it becomes largely inaccurate at higher energies and at relativistic temperatures ($T_esim10^9$ K). We present new calculations of X-ray reflection using a modified version of our code XILLVER, including an accurate solution for Compton scattering of the reflected unpolarized photons in the disk atmosphere. This solution takes into account quantum electrodynamic and relativistic effects allowing the correct treatment of high photon energies and electron temperatures. We show new reflection spectra computed with this model, and discuss the improvements achieved in the reproducing the correct shape of the Compton hump, the discrepancies with previous calculations, and the expected impact of these new models in the interpretation of observational data.
We report results of a spectral and timing analysis of the poorly studied transient X-ray pulsar 2S 1553-542 using data collected with the NuSTAR and Chandra observatories and the Fermi/GBM instrument during an outburst in 2015. Properties of the source at high energies (>30 keV) are studied for the first time and the sky position had been essentially improved. The source broadband spectrum has a quite complicated shape and can be reasonably described by a composite model with two continuum components - a black body emission with the temperature about 1 keV at low energies and a power law with an exponential cutoff at high energies. Additionally an absorption feature at $sim23.5$ keV is discovered both in phase-averaged and phase-resolved spectra and interpreted as the cyclotron resonance scattering feature corresponding to the magnetic field strength of the neutron star $Bsim3times10^{12}$ G. Based on the Fermi/GBM data the orbital parameters of the system were substantially improved, that allowed us to determine the spin period of the neutron star P = 9.27880(3) s and a local spin-up $dot P simeq -7.5times10^{-10}$ s s$^{-1}$ due to the mass accretion during the NuSTAR observations. Assuming accretion from the disk and using standard torque models we have estimated the distance to the system $d=20pm4$ kpc.
We present spectral and timing analysis of NuSTAR observations of RX J0520.5$-$6932 in the 3-79 keV band collected during its outburst in January 2014. The target was observed on two epochs and we report the detection of a cyclotron resonant scattering feature with central energies of $E_mathrm{CRSF} = 31.3_{-0.7}^{+0.8}$ keV and $31.5_{-0.6}^{+0.7}$ keV during the two observations, respectively, corresponding to a magnetic field of $B approx 2 times10^{12}$ G. The 3-79 keV luminosity of the system during the two epochs assuming a nominal distance of 50 kpc was $3.667pm0.007times 10^{38},mathrm{erg,s^{-1}}$ and $3.983pm0.007times10^{38},mathrm{erg,s^{-1}}$. Both values are much higher than the critical luminosity of $approx1.5times10^{37},mathrm{erg,s^{-1}}$ above which a radiation dominated shock front may be expected. This adds a new object to the sparse set of three systems that have a cyclotron line observed at luminosities in excess of $10^{38},mathrm{erg,s^{-1}}$. A broad ($sigmaapprox0.45$ keV) Fe emission line is observed in the spectrum at a central energy of $6.58_{-0.05}^{+0.05}$ keV in both epochs. The pulse profile of the pulsar was observed to be highly asymmetric with a sharply rising and slowly falling profile of the primary peak. We also observed minor variations in the cyclotron line energy and width as a function of the rotation phase.% As in observations of other cyclotron absorption line sources, there is a small ($Deltaphilesssim0.1$) phase difference between the peak of the cyclotron energy variation and the peak of the flux variation.
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