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Preprint B/06

Study of the cyclotron feature in MXB 0656-072

V.A. McBride (1), J. Wilms (2), M.J. Coe (1), I. Kreykenbohm (3,4), R.E. Rothschild (5), W. Coburn (6), J.L. Galache (1), P. Kretschmar (7), W.R.T. Edge (1), R. Staubert (3)

(1) School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Southampton, Highfield, SO 17 1BJ, UK
(2) Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK
(3) Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik - Astronomie, Sand 1 72076 Tübingen, Germany
(4) INTEGRAL Science Data Centre, 16 Chemin d'Écogia, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
(5) Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California, La Jolla, CA 92093-0424, USA
(6) Space Science Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94702-7450, USA
(7) European Space Astronomy Center, ESA, P.O. Box 50727, 28080 Madrid, Spain

To be published in: A&A

Abstract. We have monitored a Type II outburst of the Be/X-ray binary MXB 0656-072 in a series of pointed RXTE observations during October through December 2003. The source spectrum shows a cyclotron resonance scattering feature at 32.8 ± 0.5 keV, corresponding to a magnetic field strength of (3.67 ± 0.06) x 10¹² G and is stable through the outburst and over the pulsar spin phase. The pulsar, with an average pulse period of 160.4 ± 0.4 s, shows a spin-up of 0.45 s over the duration of the outburst. From optical data, the source distance is estimated to be 3.9 ± 0.1 kpc and this is used to estimate the X-ray luminosity and a theoretical prediction of the pulsar spin-up during the outburst.
 
Key words: X-rays: stars - stars: magnetic fields - stars: pulsars:individual: MXB 0656-072

Preprint (142 kb PDF file including figures)
Astrophysics (astro-ph): astro-ph/0602113

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