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arxiv: 2303.01800 · v1 · pith:ADY2BBXBnew · submitted 2023-03-03 · 🌌 astro-ph.HE

IXPE observations of the quintessential wind-accreting X-ray pulsar Vela X-1

Sofia V. Forsblom , Juri Poutanen , Sergey S. Tsygankov , Matteo Bachetti , Alessandro Di Marco , Victor Doroshenko , Jeremy Heyl , Fabio La Monaca
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Christian Malacaria Herman L. Marshall Fabio Muleri Alexander A. Mushtukov Maura Pilia Daniele Rogantini Valery F. Suleimanov Roberto Taverna Fei Xi Iv\'an Agudo Lucio A. Antonelli Luca Baldini Wayne H. Baumgartner Ronaldo Bellazzini Stefano Bianchi Stephen D. Bongiorno Raffaella Bonino Alessandro Brez Niccol\`o Bucciantini Fiamma Capitanio Simone Castellano Elisabetta Cavazzuti Chien-Ting Chen Stefano Ciprini Enrico Costa Alessandra De Rosa Ettore Del Monte Laura Di Gesu Niccol\`o Di Lalla Immacolata Donnarumma Michal Dov\v{c}iak Steven R. Ehlert Teruaki Enoto Yuri Evangelista Sergio Fabiani Riccardo Ferrazzoli Javier A. Garcia Shuichi Gunji Kiyoshi Hayashida Wataru Iwakiri Svetlana G. Jorstad Philip Kaaret Vladimir Karas Takao Kitaguchi Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak Henric Krawczynski Luca Latronico Ioannis Liodakis Simone Maldera Alberto Manfreda Fr\'ed\'eric Marin Andrea Marinucci Alan P. Marscher Giorgio Matt Ikuyuki Mitsuishi Tsunefumi Mizuno Michela Negro Chi-Yung Ng Stephen L. O'Dell Nicola Omodei Chiara Oppedisano Alessandro Papitto George G. Pavlov Abel L. Peirson Matteo Perri Melissa Pesce-Rollins Pierre-Olivier Petrucci Andrea Possenti Simonetta Puccetti Brian D. Ramsey John Rankin Ajay Ratheesh Oliver J. Roberts Roger W. Romani Carmelo Sgr\`o Patrick Slane Paolo Soffitta Gloria Spandre Rashid A. Sunyaev Doug Swartz Toru Tamagawa Fabrizio Tavecchio Yuzuru Tawara Allyn F. Tennant Nicholas E. Thomas Francesco Tombesi Alessio Trois Roberto Turolla Jacco Vink Martin C. Weisskopf Kinwah Wu Silvia Zane
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classification 🌌 astro-ph.HE
keywords x-rayvelaaccretinganalysispolarizationpulsarsdatadegree
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The radiation from accreting X-ray pulsars was expected to be highly polarized, with some estimates for the polarization degree of up to 80%. However, phase-resolved and energy-resolved polarimetry of X-ray pulsars is required in order to test different models and to shed light on the emission processes and the geometry of the emission region. Here we present the first results of the observations of the accreting X-ray pulsar Vela X-1 performed with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). Vela X-1 is considered to be the archetypal example of a wind-accreting high-mass X-ray binary system, consisting of a highly magnetized neutron star accreting matter from its supergiant stellar companion. The spectro-polarimetric analysis of the phase-averaged data for Vela X-1 reveals a polarization degree (PD) of 2.3$\pm$0.4% at the polarization angle (PA) of -47.3$\pm$5.4 deg. A low PD is consistent with the results obtained for other X-ray pulsars and is likely related to the inverse temperature structure of the neutron star atmosphere. The energy-resolved analysis shows the PD above 5 keV reaching 6-10%, and a 90 deg difference in the PA compared to the data in the 2-3 keV range. The phase-resolved spectro-polarimetric analysis finds a PD in the range 0-9% with the PA varying between -80 and 40 deg.

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Cited by 2 Pith papers

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