Evidence for a weak magnetic field from a cyclotron line in X 1822-371

Paper Title:

Confirmation of the presence of a CRSF in the NICER spectrum of X 1822-371

Published on:

8 January 2024

Primary Category:

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Paper Authors:

R. Iaria,

T. Di Salvo,

A. Anitra,

C. Miceli,

F. Barra,

W. Leone,

L. Burderi,

A. Sanna,

A. Riggio

Bullets

Key Details

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Confirms 0.66 keV cyclotron line in X 1822-371

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Implies a very weak neutron star magnetic field of 7.9 x 10^10 G

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Emission includes thermal and Comptonized disk/column components

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Some accretion penetrates the weak magnetosphere directly

Explore the topics in this paper

accretion

cyclotron resonance

magnetic field

neutron star

x-ray binary pulsar

AI generated summary

Evidence for a weak magnetic field from a cyclotron line in X 1822-371

The X-ray binary pulsar X 1822-371 was studied using broadband X-ray spectroscopy with NICER and NuSTAR. A cyclotron resonance scattering feature was confirmed at 0.66 keV, indicating a neutron star magnetic field strength of only 7.9 x 10^10 G, the weakest ever measured from such a feature. The continuum emission was modeled as thermal and Comptonized components from the disk and accretion column, plus reflection from the disk. The weak field enables some accretion through the magnetosphere directly onto the surface.