The Hard X-ray Emission From Accretion Powered Binary Pulsars in the BeppoSAX and RXTE Era: The Observed ``Signatures'' of Comptonization and Cyclotron Electron Scattering

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

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Scientific paper

BeppoSAX and RossiXTE observations of accretion-powered pulsars have yielded a wealth of new information on these systems and have opened new exciting views on the understanding of the physical mechanism and the geometry of the hard X-ray emission from accretion driven binary systems containing neutron stars with high magnetic field (B ~ 1012 Gauss). We review and compare with the empirical and theoretical models, the observed broad band spectra focusing on the multicomponent continua, signatures of a comptonization scenario, and on the discoveries of new cyclotron resonance features. We will also discuss the observations of multiple harmonics and among the others the most exciting results in this field: i) the BeppoSAX discovery in the hard pulsating transient X0115+63 of the first ``cyclotronic spectrum'', a phase dependent X-ray spectrum with up to six harmonically spaced absorption features and ii) the recent discovery by BeppoSAX of a long awaited (and never found before) second harmonic in the spectrum of Her X-1. We will also present phase resolved studies of accreting pulsars that have led to the detailed mapping of the magnetic field strength across the emitting region, providing us many unexpected information on the geometry (e.g. the misalignement between the accretion column axis and magnetic field axis) and the physics (e.g. the role of two photon processes, photon spawning and angle redistribution) of the X-ray emission from accreting pulsars. Implications and constrains on theoretical models will be eventually discussed.

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