Timing and Spectral Analysis of HMXB 4U 1700-37 Observed with Insight-HXMT

Abstract

We report timing and spectral studies of the high-mass X-ray binary 4U 1700-37 using Insight-HXMT observations carried out in 2020 during its out-of-eclipse state. We found significant variations in flux on a timescale of kilo-seconds, while the hardness (count rate ratio between 10–30 keV and 2–10 keV) remains relatively stable. No evident pulsations were found over a frequency range of 10 ^−3 –2000 Hz. During the spectral analysis, for the first time, we took the configuration of different Insight-HXMT detectors’ orientations into account, which allows us to obtain reliable results even if stable contamination exists in the field of view. We found that the spectrum could be well described by some phenomenological models that are commonly used in accreting pulsars (e.g., a power law with a high energy cutoff) in the energy range of 2–100 keV. We found hints of cyclotron absorption features around ∼16 keV or/and ∼50 keV.

Keywords

• High mass x-ray binary stars