DISTORTED CYCLOTRON LINE PROFILE IN CEP X-4 AS OBSERVED BY NuSTAR
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Furst-2015-DISTORTED CYCLOTRON.pdf
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Author(s)
Pottschmidt, K.
Miyasaka, Hiromasa
Bhalerao, V.
Bachetti, M.
Boggs, S. E.
Christensen, F. E.
Craig, W. W.
Hailey, C. J.
Harrison, F. A.
Kennea, Jamie A.
Date Issued
June 2015
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal. Letters
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
Furst, F., K. Pottschmidt, H. Miyasaka, V. Bhalerao, M. Bachetti, S. E. Boggs, F. E. Christensen, et al. “DISTORTED CYCLOTRON LINE PROFILE IN CEP X-4 AS OBSERVED BY NuSTAR.” The Astrophysical Journal 806, no. 2 (June 15, 2015): L24. © 2015 The American Astronomical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We present spectral analysis of Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array and Swift observations of Cep X-4 during its outburst in 2014. We observed the source once during the peak of the outburst and once during the decay, finding good agreement in the spectral shape between the observations. We describe the continuum using a power law with a Fermi–Dirac cutoff at high energies. Cep X-4 has a very strong cyclotron resonant scattering feature (CRSF) around 30 keV. A simple absorption-like line with a Gaussian optical depth or a pseudo-Lorentzian profile both fail to describe the shape of the CRSF accurately, leaving significant deviations at the red side of the line. We characterize this asymmetry with a second absorption feature around 19 keV. The line energy of the CRSF, which is not influenced by the addition of this feature, shows a small but significant positive luminosity dependence. With luminosities between (1–6) × 10[superscript 36] erg s[superscript −1], Cep X-4 is below the theoretical limit where such a correlation is expected. This behavior is similar to Vela X-1 and we discuss parallels between the two systems.
MIT Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/806/2/l24
