Insight-HXMT discovery of the highest energy CRSF from the first Galactic ultra-luminous X-ray pulsar Swift J0243.6+6124

TL;DR

This paper reports the first detection of a high-energy cyclotron resonance scattering feature (CRSF) in a galactic ultraluminous X-ray pulsar, revealing a complex magnetic field structure near the neutron star surface.

Contribution

It presents the first unambiguous detection of an electron CRSF from an ULX and provides direct evidence for multipole magnetic field components near the neutron star surface.

Findings

CRSF detected at about 146 keV during peak luminosity

CRSF energy varies with pulse phase from 120 to 146 keV

Surface magnetic field estimated at approximately 1.6×10^{13} G

Abstract

The detection of cyclotron resonance scattering features (CRSFs) is the only way to directly and reliably measure the magnetic field near the surface of a neutron star (NS). The broad energy coverage and large collection area of \emph{Insight}-HXMT in the hard X-ray band allowed us to detect the CRSF with the highest energy known to date, reaching about 146 keV during the 2017 outburst of the first galactic pulsing ultraluminous X-ray source (pULX) Swift J0243.6+6124. During this outburst, the CRSF was only prominent close to the peak luminosity $\sim 2\times10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$, the highest to date in any of the Galactic pulsars. The CRSF is most significant in the spin phase region corresponding to the main pulse of the pulse profile, and its centroid energy evolves with phase from 120 to 146 keV. We identify this feature as the fundamental CRSF, since no spectral feature exists at $60-70$ keV. This is the first unambiguous detection of an electron CRSF from an ULX. We also estimate a surface magnetic field $\sim1.6\times10^{13}$ G for Swift J0243.6+6124. Considering that the dipole magnetic field strengths, inferred from several independent estimates of magnetosphere radius, are at least an order of magnitude lower than our measurement, we argue that the detection of the highest energy CRSF reported here unambiguously proves the presence of multipole field components close to the surface of the neutron star. Such a scenario has previously been suggested for several pulsating ULXs, including Swift J0243.6+6124, and our result represents the first direct confirmation of this scenario.