Issue |
A&A
Volume 620, December 2018
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | L12 | |
Number of page(s) | 10 | |
Section | Letters to the Editor | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201833442 | |
Published online | 14 December 2018 |
Letter to the Editor
NGC 300 ULX1: A test case for accretion torque theory
1
Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstraße, 85748 Garching, Germany
2
Department of Astronomy, Yale University, PO Box 208101 New Haven, CT 06520-8101, USA
e-mail: georgios.vasilopoulos@yale.edu
Received:
16
May
2018
Accepted:
27
November
2018
NGC 300 ULX1 is a newly identified ultra-luminous X-ray pulsar. The system is associated with the supernova impostor SN 2010da that was later classified as a possible supergiant Be X-ray binary. In this work we report on the spin period evolution of the neutron star based on all the currently available X-ray observations of the system. We argue that the X-ray luminosity of the system has remained almost constant since 2010, at a level above ten times the Eddington limit. Moreover, we find evidence that the spin period of the neutron star evolved from ∼126 s down to ∼18 s within a period of about 4 years. We explain this unprecedented spin evolution in terms of the standard accretion torque theory. An intriguing consequence for NGC 300 ULX1 is that a neutron star spin reversal should have occurred a few years after the SN 2010da event.
Key words: X-rays: binaries / galaxies: individual: NGC 300 / stars: neutron / pulsars: individual: NGC 300 ULX1
© ESO 2018
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