Variations and Correlations in Cyclotron Resonant Scattering Features of Vela X-1 Studied by INTEGRAL

Abstract

Long-term hard X-ray monitoring observations on high mass X-ray binary Vela X-1 from 2003 -- 2011 have been performed by INTEGRAL. I systematically analyzed the average hard X-ray spectra of Vela X-1 from 3 -- 200 keV, with main aims to detect cyclotron resonant scattering features and study their variation patterns with accreting luminosities and orbital phases. The cyclotron scattering lines of Vela X-1 at $\sim 22-27$ keV and $49-57$ keV are confirmed in the average spectra of Vela X-1. But in the flare states with hard X-ray luminosity higher than $\sim 5\times 10^{36}$ erg s${}^{-1}$ (3 -- 100 keV), the fundamental line cannot be detected. This feature suggests that a fan-like beam radiation pattern is expected in high luminosity ranges of Vela X-1. Variations of the cyclotron line energies and depths are discovered, which may change with continuum spectral properties. Both cyclotron line energies show no correlations with X-ray luminosity. The fundamental line energy shows no significant correlations with photon index and cutoff energy. While, the first harmonic energy shows a positive correlation with photon index and exponential cutoff energy. The energy ratio of two cyclotron lines always higher than 2 has the weak correlation with photon index and cutoff energy. These relations support that the X-ray spectral properties of accreting X-ray pulsars are affected by cyclotron resonance scattering. In the case of Vela X-1, the broader and deeper first harmonic would play the main role to cause the spectral variations. The positive correlations between the ratio of line width to energy and the corresponding depth for both two lines support a cylindrical column accretion geometry in Vela X-1.

12 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, to be published in MNRAS

References in corpus (2)

• High variability in Vela X-1: giant flares and off states
• Short-Term Variability of X-rays from Accreting Neutron Star Vela X-1: I. Suzaku Observations

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