2012MNRAS.423.1978L -
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 423, 1978-1984 (2012/June-3)
Strong outburst activity of the X-ray pulsar X Persei during 2001–2011.
LUTOVINOV A., TSYGANKOV S. and CHERNYAKOVA M.
Abstract (from CDS):
We present the results of a comprehensive analysis of the X-ray pulsar X Persei over the period 1996–2011, encompassing the quite low state and subsequent strong outburst activity. Using data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and Swift, we detected several consecutive outbursts, during which the source luminosity increased by a factor of ∼ 5 up to LX ≃ 1.2 {x} 1035 erg/s. Previously, the source has been observed in a high state only once. The source spectrum in a standard energy band (4–25 keV) is independent of the flux change and can be described by a model that includes both thermal and non-thermal components. With the help of data from the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (Integral), we registered the highly significant cyclotron absorption line in the source spectrum and, for the first time, detected a significantly hard X-ray emission from the pulsar up to ∼ 160 keV. We also report drastic changes of the pulse period during the outburst activity: a long episode of spin-down was changed to spin-up with a rate of {dot}P/P ≃ -(3-5)x10–4/yr, which is several times higher than previous rates of spin-up and spin-down. To search for a correlation between the X-ray and optical light curves, we took data from the international data base of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). We found no significant correlation between optical and X-ray fluxes at any time-lag from dozens of days to years.
Abstract Copyright:
2012 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society2012 RAS
Journal keyword(s):
pulsars: individual: 4U 0352+309/X Persei - X-ray: binaries
Simbad objects:
2
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