4U 0115+63 from RXTE and INTEGRAL data: Pulse profile and cyclotron line energy

We analyze the observations of the transient X-ray pulsar 4U 0115+63 with the RXTE and INTEGRAL observatories in a wide X-ray (3–100 keV) energy band during its intense outbursts in 1999 and 2004. The energy of the fundamental harmonic of the cyclotron resonance absorption line near the maximum of the X-ray flux from the source (luminosity range 5 × 10³⁷–2 × 10³⁸ erg s^?1) is ～11 keV. When the pulsar luminosity falls below ～5 × 10³⁷ erg s^?1, the energy of the fundamental harmonic is displaced sharply toward the high energies, up to ～16 keV. Under the assumption of a dipole magnetic field configuration, this change in cyclotron harmonic energy corresponds to a decrease in the height of the emitting region by ～2 km, while other spectral parameters, in particular, the cutoff energy, remain essentially constant. At a luminosity ～7 × 10³⁷ erg s^?1, four almost equidistant cyclotron line harmonics are recorded in the spectrum. This suggests that either the region where the emission originates is compact or the emergent spectrum from different (in height) segments of the accretion column is uniform. We have found significant pulse profile variations with energy, luminosity, and time. In particular, we show that the profile variations from pulse to pulse are not reduced to a simple modulation of the accretion rate specified by external conditions.     

ART-P/Granat observations of the X-ray pulsar 4U0115+634 during the outburst in February 1990

Observations of the transient X-ray pulsar 4U0115+634 with the ART-P telescope aboard the Granat Observatory during the outburst in February 1990 are presented. The source exhibited a strong, regular and irregular variability, including X-ray bursts of duration 300–500 s. Two absorption features were detected in the source's photon spectrum at ～12 and ～22 keV, which were interpreted as the lines of resonance scattering of its emission at the first and second cyclotron harmonics. The magnetic-field strength B on the neutron-star surface that corresponds to these lines is ～1.3 × 10¹² G. The ratio of the line energies slightly differs from the harmonic ratio 1: 2. Moreover, this ratio and the line energies themselves vary appreciably with phase on a time scale of one pulsation period. The dependence of other spectral parameters for 4U0115+634 on pulse phase is investigated.     

Observations of the transient X-ray pulsar KS 1947+300 by the INTEGRAL and RXTE observatories

We analyze the observations of the X-ray pulsar KS 1947+300 performed by the INTEGRAL and RXTE observatories over a wide (3–100 keV) X-ray energy range. The shape of the pulse profile was found to depend on the luminosity of the source. Based on the model of a magnetized neutron star, we study the characteristics of the pulsar using the change in its spin-up rate. We estimated the magnetic field strength of the pulsar and the distance to the binary.     

Long-term INTEGRAL and RXTE observations of the X-ray pulsar LMC X-4

We analyze the observations of the X-ray pulsar LMCX-4 performed by the INTEGRAL observatory and the All-Sky Monitor (ASM) of the RXTE observatory over a wide energy range. The observed hard X-ray flux from the source is shown to change by more than a factor of 50 (from ～70 mCrab in the high state to ～1.3 mCrab in the low state) on the time scale of the accretion-disk precession period, whose mean value for 1996–2004 was determined with a high accuracy, P_prec = 30.275 ± 0.004 days. In the low state, a flare about 10 h in duration was detected from the source; the flux from the source increased by more than a factor of 4 during this flare. The shape of the pulsar’s broadband spectrum is essentially invariable with its intensity; no statistically significant features associated with the possible resonance cyclotron absorption line were found in the spectrum of the source.     

NuSTAR observations of the X-ray pulsar LMC X-4: A constraint on the magnetic field and tomography of the system in the fluorescent iron line

We present the results of the spectral and timing analysis of the X-ray pulsar LMC X-4 based on data from the NuSTAR observatory in the broad X-ray energy range 3–79 keV. Along with a detailed analysis of the source’s averaged spectrum, high-precision spectra corresponding to different phases of the neutron star spin cycle have been obtained for the first time. The Comptonization model is shown to describe best the source’s spectrum, and the evolution of its parameters as a function of the pulse phase has been traced. For all spectra (the averaged and phase-resolved ones) in the energy range 5–55 keV we have searched for the cyclotron absorption line. The derived upper limit on the optical depth of the cyclotron line τ ~ 0.15 (3σ) points to the absence of this feature in the given energy range, which provides a constraint on the magnetic field of the neutron star: B <3 × 10¹¹ or >6.5 × 10¹² G. The latter constraint is consistent with the magnetic field estimate obtained by analyzing the pulsar’s power spectrum, B ? 3 × 10¹³ G. Based on our analysis of the phase-resolved spectra, we have determined the delay between the emission peaks and the equivalent width of the fluorescent iron line. This delay depends on the orbital phase and is apparently associated with the travel time of photons between the emitting regions in the vicinity of the neutron star and the region where the flux is reflected (presumably in the inflowing stream or at the place of interaction between the stream and the outer edge of the accretion disk).     

X-ray variability of the pulsar Vela X-1 as observed with ART-P/Granat

Observations of the X-ray pulsar Vela X-1 with the ART-P telescope onboard the Granat Observatory are presented. Variability on a time scale of several thousand seconds was detected; intensity variations are shown to be accompanied by changes in the source’s spectrum. The hardness was also found to be highly variable on a scale of one pulsation period. The source’s spectrum exhibits an absorption feature at energy ～7 keV, which is apparently attributable to cyclotron scattering/absorption in the neutron-star magnetic field. Weak persistent emission was detected during an X-ray eclipse, which probably resulted from the scattering of pulsar emission in the stellar wind from an optical star.     

Study of the fast X-ray transient XTE J1901+014 based on INTEGRAL,RXTE, and ROSAT data

The source XTE J1901+014 discovered by the RXTE observatory during an intense outburst of hard radiation and classified as a fast X-ray transient is studied. The source’s spectral characteristics in the quiescent state have been investigated for the first time both in the soft X-ray energy range (3–20 keV) based on ROSAT and RXTE data and in the hard energy range (>20 keV) based on INTEGRAL data. A timing analysis of the source’s properties has revealed weak nonperiodic bursts of activity on time scales of several tens of seconds and two intense (～0.5–1 Crab) outbursts more than several hundred seconds in duration. Certain assumptions about the nature of the object under study are made.     

The first results of observations of the transient pulsar SAX J2103.5+4545 by the INTEGRAL observatory

We present the preliminary results of our analysis of the observations of the X-ray pulsar SAX J2103.5+4545 by the INTEGRAL Observatory in December 2002. We mapped this region of the sky in a wide energy range, from 3 to 200 keV. The detection of the source is shown to be significant up to energies of ～100 keV. The hard X-ray flux in the energy range 15–100 keV is variable and presumably depends on the orbital phase. We show that the shape of the pulsar spectrum and its parameters derived from 18–150-keV IBIS data are compatible with the RXTE observations of the source.     

The first observation of AX J1749.1-2733 in a bright X-ray state—Another fast transient revealed by INTEGRAL

An intense outburst of hard radiation (with a peak flux of ～50 mCrab) was detected from the X-ray transient AX J1749.1-2733 by the IBIS/ISGRI gamma-ray telescope onboard the INTEGRAL observatory when the Galactic center field was monitored on September 8–10, 2003. Previously, this source had never been observed in a bright X-ray state. During the outburst, the source’s radiation spectrum was gently sloping and hard (extended to ～100 keV), followed a power law in the standard X-ray energy range, and had an exponential cutoff above 40–50 keV. The spectral hardness decreased with increasing flux. These and other properties described here and the shortness of the outburst (<2 days) allow the source to be attributed to the group of fast X-ray transients many representatives of which have an early O-B supergiant as their optical counterpart. Possible causes of the outbursts of fast transients are discussed. We show that accretion from the supergiant’s stellar wind should have led to intense persistent radiation from transients. The absence of radiation can be explained by the ejection of accreting matter from the system (propeller effect) during its contact with the magnetosphere of a rapidly rotating neutron star. Transient outbursts could originate in sources of this type if the spin period of their neutron star P _s differed only slightly from the critical period P _s ^* ? 3 s at which the propeller effect is still possible. The outburst is triggered by an insignificant rise in the local stellar wind density, by a factor of (P _s ^* /P _s)^7/3. The entire outburst profile cannot be explained by an individual inhomogeneity in the wind, but is the reflection of a long-term (～2 days for AX J1749.1-2733) change in the rate of wind outflow from the supergiant’s surface facing the compact source. The rate of wind outflow could be enhanced through X-ray heating of the supergiant’s surface.     

Revealing the Nature of the Obscured High Mass X-ray Binary IGR J16318-4848

The X-ray source IGR J16318-4848 was the first source discovered by INTEGRAL on January 29, 2003. The high energy spectrum exhibits such a high column density that the source is undetectable in X-rays below 2 keV. On February 23–25, 2003 we triggered a Target of Opportunity (ToO) Program using the EMMI and SOFI instruments on the New Technology Telescope of the European Southern Observatory (La Silla) to get optical and near-infrared (NIR) observations. We discovered the optical counterpart, and confirmed the already proposed candidate in the NIR. NIR spectroscopy revealed a large amount of emission lines, including forbidden iron lines and P-Cygni profiles, showing a strong similarity with CI Cam, another strongly absorbed source. Together with the spectral energy distribution (SED), these data point to a high luminosity, high temperature source, with an intrinsic absorption greater than the interstellar absorption, but two orders of magnitude below the X-ray absorption. All these observations show that IGR J16318-4848 is a high mass X-ray binary (HMXB) at a distance between 0.9 and 6.2 kpc, the mass donor being an early-type star, probably a sgB[e] star, surrounded by a dense and absorbing circumstellar material. This would make the second HMXB with a sgB[e] star as the mass donor after CI Cam. Other sources, discovered by INTEGRAL near IGR J16318-4848 in the direction of the Norma arm, present the same characteristics, at least in X-rays. Such sources may represent a different evolutionary state of X-ray binaries previously undetected with the lower energy space telescopes; if it is so, a new class of strongly absorbed X-ray binaries is being unveiled by INTEGRAL. Out of the 15 sources present in this region, only one might be associated with an unidentified EGRET source: IGR J16393-4643. Therefore these obscured INTEGRAL sources do not seem to be powerful high energy (E > 100 MeV) emitters. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Chile (proposal ESO N^∘ 70.D-0340).     

磁化中子星发射线的激射不稳定性理论

在中子星磁轴吸积柱的上部,少数高能电子通过磁镜点反射,可使部份电子的速度分布形成非热分布,由此激发激射(Maser)不稳定性。波被放大,发射出频率近似为电子迴旋频率及其倍频的相干辐射。用此模型计算了HerX-1的迴旋线发射。发现不稳定性增长率与吸积柱中电子数密度成正比,因而比非相干散射产生的连续辐射随电子数密度增长更快;而且发射线的强度和能量均与脉冲相位关联。这个理论可解释近期的HerX-1观测结果。     

Timing characteristics of the hard X-ray emission from bright X-ray pulsars based on INTEGRAL data

We review the results of a timing analysis of the observations for ten bright X-ray pulsars (with fluxes >100 mCrab in the 20–100 keV energy band) that fell within the INTEGRAL field of view from 2003 to 2007. The dependence of the pulse profile on the energy and intrinsic source luminosity has been investigated; particular attention has been paid to searching for changes in the pulse profile near the cyclotron frequency. The dependence of the pulsed fraction for X-ray pulsars on their luminosity and energy band has been studied in detail for the first time.     

Constraints on the luminosity of the central source in SNR 1987A

We obtained constraints on the luminosity of the central source in SNR 1987 A using XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL data. XMM-Newton yields an upper limit on the SNR luminosity in the 2–10 keV energy band, L_X ? 5 × 10³⁴ erg s^?1. Since the optical depth of the envelope is still large in the XMM-Newton energy band, this constraint carries no useful information about the luminosity of the central source. The optical depth is expected to be small in the hard (20–200 keV) X-ray band of the IBIS telescope aboard the INTEGRAL observatory. We detected no statistically significant emission from SNR 1987 A in the INTEGRAL data and obtained an upper limit of L_X ? 1.1 × 10³⁶ erg s^?1 on the luminosity of the central source in the 20–60 keV band. We also obtained an upper limit on the mass of radioactive ⁴⁴Ti, M(⁴⁴Ti) ? 10^?3M_⊙.     

An unexpected outburst from A0535+262

A0535+262 is a transient Be/X-ray binary system which was in a quiescent phase from 1994 to 2005. In this paper we report on the timing and spectral properties of the INTEGRAL detection of the source in 2003 October. The source is detected for ∼6000 s in the 18–100 keV energy band at a luminosity of  ∼3.8 × 10³⁵ erg s⁻¹  ; this is compatible with the high end of the range of luminosities expected for quiescent emission. The system is observed to be outside of the centrifugal inhibition regime and pulsations are detected with periodicity,   P = 103.7 ± 0.1 s  . An examination of the pulse history of the source shows that it had been in a constant state of spin-down since it entered the quiescent phase in 1994. The rate of spin-down implies the consistent presence of an accretion disc supplying torques to the pulsar. The observations show that the system is still active and highly variable even in the absence of recent Type I or Type II X-ray outbursts.     

Observations of the X-ray burster MX 0836-42 by the INTEGRAL and RXTE orbiting observatories

We present the results of our study of the emission from the transient burster MX 0836-42 using its observations by the INTEGRAL and RXTE X-ray and gamma-ray observatories in the period 2003–2004. The source’s broadband X-ray spectrum in the energy range 3–120 keV has been obtained and investigated for the first time. We have detected 39 X-ray bursts from this source. Their analysis shows that the maximum 3–20-keV flux varies significantly from burst to burst, F ～ (0.5–1.5) × 10^?8 erg cm^?2 s^?1. Using the flux at the maximum of the brightest detected burst, we determined an upper limit for the distance to the source, D ? 8 kpc.     

A weak outburst of the millisecond X-ray pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 in October 1996 as detected from RXTE slew data

Analysis of the RXTE slew data in October 1996 revealed a weak X-ray burst from the millisecond pulsar SAX J 1808.4-3658. The 3–20-keV energy spectrum of the source can be described by a power law with an index of 2.0 and a(3-to 20 keV) luminosity of ～1.4×10³⁵ erg s^?1 (the distance to the source was taken to be 2.5 kpc). Because of the short exposure time, we failed to detect weak pulsations at a frequency of 401 Hz in the source. The (2σ) upper limit of the pulse fraction is ～13%.     

Relationship between the nonstationary radio-luminosity variations of the Crab Nebula and the activity of its pulsar

Based on the half-century-long history of radio observations of the Crab Nebula, we investigate the evolution of its radio luminosity. We found a secular decrease in the radio luminosity; it has decreased by 9% since the discovery of the radio source in 1948. Apart from the secular decrease in the luminosity of the Crab Nebula, we identified two time intervals, 1981–1987 and 1992–1998, when radio bursts with energy release ～10⁴¹ erg took place. In these years, the spectral indices of the instantaneous spectra decreased significantly due to the increase in the flux densities at short (centimeter and millimeter) wavelengths. These events were preceded by sudden increases in the pulsar’s rotation rates, the largest of which, with an amplitude of ΔΩ/Ω = 3 × 10^?8, occurred in 1975 and 1989. We show that the magnetospheric instability mechanism that accompanies strong glitches can provide the energetics of the excess luminosity of the Nebula through the ejection of relativistic electrons with a total energy higher than 6 × 10⁴² erg from the pulsar’s magnetosphere.     

INTEGRAL and XMM–Newton observations of the X-ray pulsar IGR J16320−4751/AX J1631.9−4752

We report on observations of the X-ray pulsar IGR J16320−4751 (also known as AX J1631.9−4752) performed simultaneously with International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory ( INTEGRAL ) and XMM–Newton . We refine the source position and identify the most likely infrared counterpart. Our simultaneous coverage allows us to confirm the presence of X-ray pulsations at ∼1300 s, that we detect above 20 keV with INTEGRAL for the first time. The pulse fraction is consistent with being constant with energy, which is compatible with a model of polar accretion by a pulsar. We study the spectral properties of IGR J16320−4751 during two major periods occurring during the simultaneous coverage with both satellites, namely a flare and a non-flare period. We detect the presence of a narrow 6.4 keV iron line in both periods. The presence of such a feature is typical of supergiant wind accretors such as Vela X-1 or GX 301−2. We inspect the spectral variations with respect to the pulse phase during the non-flare period, and show that the pulse is solely due to variations of the X-ray flux emitted by the source and not due to variations of the spectral parameters. Our results are therefore compatible with the source being a pulsar in a High Mass X-ray Binary. We detect a soft excess appearing in the spectra as a blackbody with a temperature of ∼0.07 keV. We discuss the origin of the X-ray emission in IGR J16320−4751: while the hard X-rays are likely the result of Compton emission produced in the close vicinity of the pulsar, based on energy argument we suggest that the soft excess is likely the emission by a collisionally energized cloud in which the compact object is embedded.     

Peculiarities of Super-Eddington Flares from the X-ray Pulsar LMC X-4 Based on NuSTAR Data

We present the results of our analysis of super-Eddington flares recorded fromthe X-ray pulsar LMCX-4 by theNuSTAR observatory in the energy range 3–79 keV. The pulsar spectrumis well described by the thermal Comptonization model (COMPTT) both in quiescence and during flares, when the peak luminosity reaches L_x ~ (2?4) × 10³⁹ erg s^?1. An important feature that has been investigated for the first time in this paper is that an increase in luminosity during flares by more than an order of magnitude is observed at energies below 25–30 keV, while at higher energies (30–70 keV) the spectrum shape and the source flux remain virtually unchanged. The increase in luminosity is accompanied by changes in the source pulse profile—in the energy range 3–40 keV it becomes approximately triangular and the pulsed fraction increaseswith rising energy, reaching 60–70%in the energy range 25–40 keV.We discuss possible changes in the geometry of the accretion column consistent with similar changes in the spectra and pulse profiles.     

Broadband spectrum of the total X-ray emission from the galaxy M31

We present the results of measurements of the total X-ray flux from the Andromeda galaxy (M31) in the 3-100 keV band based on data from the RXTE/PCA, INTEGRAL/ISGRI, and SWIFT/BAT space experiments. We show that the total emission from the galaxy has a multicomponent spectrum whose main characteristics are specified by binaries emitting in the optically thick and optically thin regimes. The galaxy’s luminosity at energies 20–100 keV gives about 6% of its total luminosity in the 3–100 keV band. The emissivity of the stellar population in M31 is L _{2–20 keV} ～ 1.1 × 10²⁹ erg s^?1 M _⊙ ^?1 in the 2–20 keV band and L _{20–100 keV} ～ 8 × 10²⁷ erg s^?1 M _⊙ ^?1 in the 20–100 keV band. Since low-mass X-ray binaries at high luminosities pass into a soft state with a small fraction of hard X-ray emission, the detection of individual hard X-ray sources in M31 requires a sensitivity that is tens of times better (up to 10^?13 erg s^?1 cm^?2) than is needed to detect the total hard X-ray emission from the entire galaxy. Allowance for the contribution from the hard spectral component of the galaxy changes the galaxy’s effective Compton temperature approximately by a factor of 2, from ～1.1 to ～2.1 keV.