Measurements of Cyclotron Features and Pulse Periods in the High-Mass X-Ray Binaries 4U 1538-522 and 4U 1907+09 with INTEGRAL

TL;DR

This study analyzes INTEGRAL data of two high-mass X-ray binaries, revealing their pulse period evolution, cyclotron features, and their relation to luminosity, with implications for understanding neutron star magnetic fields.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed timing and spectral analysis of 4U 1538-522 and 4U 1907+09 with INTEGRAL, including torque reversal detection and cyclotron line behavior.

Findings

4U 1538-522 shows a spin-up trend until 2009, then reverses to spin down.

Cyclotron features detected at ~22 and ~49 keV in 4U 1538-522.

4U 1907+09 exhibits a positive correlation between cyclotron line energy and luminosity.

Abstract

We present a spectral and timing analysis of INTEGRAL observations of two high mass X-ray binaries, 4U 1538-522 and 4U 1907+09. Our timing measurements for 4U 1538-522 find the pulse period to have exhibited a spin-up trend until approximately 2009, after which there is evidence for a torque reversal, with the source beginning to spin down to the most recently-measured period of 525.407 +/- 0.001 s. The most recent INTEGRAL observations of 4U 1907+09 are not found to yield statistically significant pulse periods due to the significantly lower flux from the source compared to 4U 1538-522. A spectral model consisting of a power-law continuum with an exponential cutoff and modified by two cyclotron resonance scattering features is found to fit both sources well, with the cyclotron scattering features detected at ~22 and ~49 keV for 4U 1538-522 and at ~18 and ~36 keV in 4U 1907+09. The spectral parameters of 4U 1538-522 are generally not found to vary significantly with flux, and there is little to no variation across the torque reversal. Examining our results in conjunction with previous work, we find no evidence for a correlation between cyclotron line energy and luminosity for 4U 1538-522. 4U 1907+09 shows evidence for a positive correlation between cyclotron line energy and luminosity, which would make it the fourth, and lowest-luminosity, cyclotron line source to exhibit this relationship