SMC X-1: A Flaring X-ray Pulsar

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

We report results from Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observations of the high-mass X-ray binary pulsar SMC X-1. Through the analysis of all publicly-available RXTE data we find that SMC X-1 is a highly variable source exhibiting apparent X-ray flares of 100 s length. The flaring activity seems to occur at all binary orbital phases and correlates with other variabilities in the light curves. We find no significant variations in the power-density spectra, pulse profiles, softness ratios, and X-ray spectra along with the flares, indicating that the X-ray flares from SMC X-1 may be an extension of the normal persistent emission with increased accretion rates. We discuss the origin of the flares in terms of accretion disk instability around a weakly magnetized X-ray binary pulsar. Our results support the interprtation that SMC X-1 is in fact an intermediate stage source like the bursting pulsar GRO J1744-28.

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