Continued decay in the cyclotron line energy in Hercules X-1

¹ Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Universität Tübingen, Sand 1, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
e-mail: staubert@astro.uni-tuebingen.de
² Dr. Remeis-Sternwarte, Astronomisches Institut der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Sternwartstr. 7, 96049 Bamberg, Germany
³ Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA

Received: 14 December 2015
Accepted: 18 March 2016

Abstract

The centroid energy E_cyc of the cyclotron line in the spectrum of the binary X-ray pulsar Her X-1 has been found to decrease with time on a time scale of a few tens of years – surprisingly short in astrophysical terms. This was found for the pulse phase-averaged line centroid energy using observational data from various X-ray satellites over the time period 1996 to 2012, establishing a reduction of ~4 keV. Here we report on the result of a new observation by NuSTAR performed in August 2015. The earlier results are confirmed and strengthened with respect to both the dependence of E_cyc on flux (it is still present after 2006) and the dependence on time: the long-term decay continued with the same rate, corresponding to a reduction of ~5 keV in 20 yr.