Discovery of a pulse-phase-transient cyclotron line in the X-ray pulsar Swift J1808.4-1754 and identification of an optical companion

TL;DR

This study analyzed the X-ray pulsar Swift J1808.4-1754, discovering a transient cyclotron line indicating the neutron star's magnetic field and identifying its likely Be-type optical companion.

Contribution

First detection of a pulse-phase-transient cyclotron line in Swift J1808.4-1754, linking spectral features to magnetic field estimation and companion star identification.

Findings

Detected a 909.73 s pulsation period.

Identified a transient cyclotron line at ~21 keV.

Most likely a Be-type star companion at 5-8 kpc.

Abstract

In this work, the temporal and spectral properties of the poorly studied X-ray pulsar Swift J1808.4$-$1754 were investigated in the 0.8-79 keV energy range based on the data from the NuSTAR and Swift observatories collected during the 2014 outburst. Strong pulsations with a period of $909.73\pm0.03$ s were detected in the source light curve, with the pulsed fraction demonstrating a nonmonotonic dependence on the energy with a local minimum around 17-22 keV. Phase lags in one of the pulse profile components, reaching the maximal value approximately at the same energy, were discovered. The pulse phase-averaged spectrum of the source has a power-law shape with an exponential cutoff at high energies, which is typical of X-ray pulsars. Pulse phase-resolved spectroscopy revealed the presence of a pulse phase-transient cyclotron absorption line at $\sim$21 keV, allowing us to estimate the neutron star magnetic field of $2.4\times10^{12}$ G. This makes Swift J1808.4$-$1754 a member of very small family of X-ray pulsars with a pulse-phase-transient cyclotron line in a narrow phase range. The data from the Nordic Optical Telescope allowed us to study the properties of the IR companion in the system and to conclude that most probably it is a Be-type star located at a distance of 5-8 kpc.