Timing and Spectral Analysis of the 2024 Outburst of 2S 1553$-$542 with NuSTAR and NICER

Abstract

We report a timing and spectral study of the 2024 outburst of the Be/X-ray binary pulsar 2S~1553$-$542 using \textit{NuSTAR} and \textit{NICER} observations. From the \textit{NuSTAR} light curve we measure a pulse period of $9.285022\pm 0.000001$~s. The energy-resolved pulse profiles are dominated by a single peak and show a wing-like structure most clearly in the $12$--$22$~keV band. The pulsed fraction remains above 60\% and increases with energy. The phase-averaged \textit{NuSTAR} spectrum is described by an absorbed blackbody plus cutoff power-law continuum, together with an iron emission line and a cyclotron absorption feature. Using the \texttt{cyclabs} model, we obtain a cyclotron energy of $E_{\mathrm{cyc}}\simeq 24.1$~keV, corresponding to a magnetic field strength of $B\sim 3\times 10^{12}$~G. Phase-resolved spectroscopy shows that the continuum and cyclotron-line parameters vary with pulse phase, and that the line becomes poorly constrained around the pulse-wing phase. We also searched the short \textit{NICER} GTIs for transient mHz variability using wavelet analysis and a CEEMDAN-based Hilbert--Huang transform. Localized excesses near $\sim 10$~mHz and $\sim 20$~mHz are found, but the short exposures, COI effects, red-noise fluctuations, and the lack of a well-constrained Fourier peak limit their significance. We therefore treat them as candidate mHz variability rather than firm mHz QPO detections.

23 pages, 10 figures, and 3 tables. Accepted for publication in Galaxies