Variability study of the High Mass X-ray Binary IGR J18027--2016 with {\it Swift}--XRT

Abstract

We report the results from pulsations and spectral analysis of a large number of observations of the HMXB pulsar IGR J18027--2016 with {\it Swift}--XRT, carried out at different orbital phases. In some orbital phases, as seen in different XRT observations, the X-ray intensity is found to vary by a large factor, of about $\sim$50. In all the observations with sufficient number of source X-ray photons, pulsations have been detected around the previously known pulse period of $\sim$140 sec, When detected, the pulse profiles do not show any significant variation over a flux difference of a factor of $\sim$3. The absorption column density is found to be large before and after the eclipse. We discuss various possible reasons for intensity and spectral variations in IGR J18027--2016, such as clumpy wind and hydrodynamic instabilities.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS, Comments are welcome

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