A physical scenario for the high and low X-ray luminosity states in the transitional pulsar PSR J1023+0038

Abstract

PSR J1023+0038 (J1023) is a binary system hosting a neutron star and a low mass companion. J1023 is the best studied transitional pulsar, alternating a faint eclipsing millisecond radio pulsar state to a brighter X-ray active state. At variance with other Low Mass X-ray binaries, this active state reaches luminosities of only ~$10^{34}$ erg s${}^{-1}$, showing strong, fast variability. In the active state, J1023 displays: i) a high state ($L_X\sim 7\times 10^{33}$ erg s${}^{-1}$, 0.3-80 keV) occurring ~80% of the time and during which X-ray pulsations at the neutron star spin period are detected (pulsed fraction ~8%); ii) a low state ($L_{X}10^{33}$ erg s${}^{-1}$) during which pulsations are not detected (~<3%); and iii) a flaring state during which sporadic flares occur in excess of ~$10^{34}$ erg s${}^{-1}$, with no pulsation too. The transition between the high and the low states is very rapid, on a ~10 s timescale. Here we put forward a plausible physical interpretation of the high and low states based on the (fast) transition among the propeller state and the radio pulsar state. We modelled the XMM-Newton spectra of the high, low and radio pulsar states, finding a good agreement with this physical picture.

8 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A. Note added in proof included

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• Probing X-ray emission in different modes of PSR J1023+0038 with a radio pulsar scenario
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• The binary millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038 -- II. Optical spectroscopy
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• Simultaneous X-ray and radio observations of the transitional millisecond pulsar candidate CXOU J110926.4-650224. The discovery of a variable radio counterpart
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• Measuring accretion disc properties in the transitional millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038 using XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, NICER and Chandra
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• There and back again: Mysterious optical pulse profile behavior of the transitional millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038