Near-periodical spin period evolution in the binary system LMC X-4

Abstract

In this paper we investigated the long-term evolution of the pulse-period in the high-mass X-ray binary LMC X-4 by taking advantage of more than 43~yrs of measurements in the X-ray domain. Our analysis revealed for the first time that the source is displaying near-periodical variations of its spin period on a time scale of roughly 6.8~yrs, making LMC X-4 one of the known binary systems showing remarkable long term spin torque reversals. We discuss different scenarios to interpret the origin of these torque reversals.

References in corpus (6)

• Switched magnetospheric regulation of pulsar spin-down
• The ephemeris, orbital decay, and masses of 10 eclipsing HMXBs
• Determination of the mass of the neutron star in SMC X-1, LMC X-4 and Cen X-3 with VLT/UVES
• Luminosity dependence of the cyclotron line and evidence for the accretion regime transition in V 0332+53
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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Stellar wind accretion and accretion disk formation: applications to neutron star high mass X-ray binaries
• Observations of the X-ray pulsar LMC X-4 with NuSTAR: limit on the magnetic field and tomography of the system in the fluorescent iron line
• Post-flare Formation of the Accretion Stream and a Dip in Pulse Profiles of LMC X-4
• Torque reversal and cyclotron absorption feature in HMXB 4U 1538-522