The Nature of Spectral Variability of the Accreting Pulsar Centaurus X-3 Unveiled by NuSTAR Observation Covering Two Orbital Cycles

Abstract

We conducted a 369 ks NuSTAR observation on the X-ray pulsar Centaurus X-3, which covered two consecutive orbital cycles of the source, including two eclipse durations. We investigated the orbital-phase spectral variability over the two orbital cycles. We divided the entire observation data into multiple segments, each covering an orbital interval of ΔΦ = 0.005. The phenomenological spectral modeling applied to these orbital-phase-resolved spectra reveals that the photon index is the key parameter with the most variability and a strong correlation with the continuum flux. The photon index becomes softer during the high-flux phases and harder in the low-flux phases. The relation between the photon index and continuum flux remains consistent when investigating specific spin phases, suggesting that the spectral variability originates from extrinsic factors apart from the neutron star. Furthermore, the 3–5 keV pulse fraction also exhibits variability, being enhanced in the high-flux phases and suppressed in the low-flux phases, which indicates the presence of multiple emission components with different pulse fractions. These phenomenological analysis results enabled us to estimate the physical origin of the spectral variability. We successfully fitted the orbital-phase-resolved spectra with a physical model that assumes (1) stable emission from the neutron star, (2) attenuation by inhomogeneous, clumpy stellar wind, and (3) an additional nonpulsed emission component arising from thermal emission from the accretion disk. The thermal emission from the accretion disk can be described by a blackbody with a temperature of kT ∼ 0.5 keV and a luminosity of ∼10 ^37 erg s ^−1 .

Keywords

• X-ray binary stars
• Binary pulsars
• Accretion
• Neutron stars