NuSTAR DETECTION OF HARD X-RAY PHASE LAGS FROM THE ACCRETING PULSAR GS 0834–430

Journal Article · Fri Sep 20 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/775/1/65· OSTI ID:22270952

Miyasaka, Hiromasa; Harrison, Fiona A.; Fürst, Felix; Bellm, Eric C.; Grefenstette, Brian W.; Madsen, Kristin K.; Walton, Dominic J. ^[1]; Bachetti, Matteo; Barret, Didier ^[2]; Boggs, Steven E.; Craig, William W.; Tomsick, John A. ^[3]; Chakrabarty, Deepto ^[4]; Chenevez, Jerome; Christensen, Finn E. ^[5]; Hailey, Charles J. ^[6]; Natalucci, Lorenzo ^[7]; Pottschmidt, Katja ^[8]; Stern, Daniel ^[9]; Wilms, Jörn ^[10] ; others, and

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1. Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
2. Université de Toulouse, UPS-OMP, IRAP, F-31400 Toulouse (France)
3. Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
4. Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)
5. DTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327, DK-2800 Lyngby (Denmark)
6. Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
7. Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, INAF, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, Roma I-00133 (Italy)
8. CRESST, UMBC, and NASA GSFC, Code 661, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
9. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
10. Dr. Karl-Remeis-Sternwarte and ECAP, Sternwartstr. 7, D-96049 Bamberg (Germany)

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array hard X-ray telescope observed the transient Be/X-ray binary GS 0834–430 during its 2012 outburst—the first active state of this system observed in the past 19 yr. We performed timing and spectral analysis and measured the X-ray spectrum between 3-79 keV with high statistical significance. We find the phase-averaged spectrum to be consistent with that observed in many other magnetized, accreting pulsars. We fail to detect cyclotron resonance scattering features that would allow us to constrain the pulsar's magnetic field in either phase-averaged or phase-resolved spectra. Timing analysis shows a clearly detected pulse period of ∼12.29 s in all energy bands. The pulse profiles show a strong, energy-dependent hard phase lag of up to 0.3 cycles in phase, or about 4 s. Such dramatic energy-dependent lags in the pulse profile have never before been reported in high-mass X-ray binary pulsars. Previously reported lags have been significantly smaller in phase and restricted to low energies (E < 10 keV). We investigate the possible mechanisms that might produce this energy-dependent pulse phase shift. We find the most likely explanation for this effect is a complex beam geometry.

• OSTI ID: 22270952
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 775, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
BINARY STARS
CYCLOTRON RESONANCE
ENERGY DEPENDENCE
HARD X RADIATION
KEV RANGE
PHASE SHIFT
PULSARS
TRANSIENTS
X-RAY SPECTRA