AstroSat observations of the first Galactic ULX pulsar Swift J0243.6+6124
Abstract
Swift J0243.6+6124, the first Galactic ultraluminous X-ray pulsar, was observed during its 2017-2018 outburst with AstroSat at both sub- and super-Eddington levels of accretion with X-ray luminosities of LX ∼ 7 × 1037 and 6 × 1038 erg s-1, respectively. Our broad-band timing and spectral observations show that X-ray pulsations at ${\sim}9.85~\rm {s}$ have been detected up to 150 keV when the source was accreting at the super-Eddington level. The pulse profiles are a strong function of both energy and source luminosity, showing a double-peaked profile with pulse fraction increasing from ∼ $10{{{\ \rm per\ cent}}}$ at $1.65~\rm {keV}$ to 40-80 ${{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ at $70~\rm {keV}$ . The continuum X-ray spectra are well modelled with a high-energy cut-off power law (Γ ∼ 0.6-0.7) and one or two blackbody components with temperatures of ∼0.35 and $1.2~\rm {keV}$ , depending on the accretion level. No iron line emission is observed at sub-Eddington level, while a broad emission feature at around 6.9 keV is observed at the super-Eddington level, along with a blackbody radius ( $121\!-\!142~\rm {km}$ ) that indicates the presence of optically thick outflows.
- Publication:
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Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- January 2021
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2010.08334
- Bibcode:
- 2021MNRAS.500..565B
- Keywords:
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- pulsars: individual: (Swift J0243.6+6124);
- X-rays: binaries;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 13 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS