IGRJ18179-1621: An obscured X-ray pulsar discovered by INTEGRAL

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery and analysis of IGRJ18179-1621, an obscured X-ray pulsar with evidence of cyclotron features, indicating a magnetized neutron star in a high mass X-ray binary system.

Contribution

First detailed spectral and timing analysis of IGRJ18179-1621, revealing its nature as an obscured magnetized neutron star in a high mass X-ray binary.

Findings

Heavily absorbed X-ray emission with N_H~10^23 cm^-2

Detection of pulsations at 11.8 seconds

Possible cyclotron absorption feature at 22 keV

Abstract

We report on all the INTEGRAL and Swift data collected during the first outburst observed from IGRJ18179-1621. The broad-band spectral analysis showed that the X-ray emission from the source is heavily absorbed (N_H~10^23 cm^-2), and well described by a flat power-law with a high energy rollover (cutoff energy 9-12 keV, e-folding energy 4-7 keV). We found some evidence of a cyclotron absorption feature at 22\pm1 keV. Together with the pulsations at 11.8s discovered in the XRT data, this evidence would suggest that IGRJ18179-1621 is an obscured magnetized accreting neutron star, possibly part of a supergiant high mass X-ray binary or a Be X-ray binary system.