Discovery of spin-phase-dependent QPOs in the supercritical accretion regime from the X-ray pulsar RX J0440.9+4431

¹ International Space Science Institute, Hallerstrasse 6, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
e-mail: cmalacaria.astro@gmail.com
² SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Niels Bohrlaan 4, 2333CA Leiden, The Netherlands
³ Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
⁴ Science and Technology Institute, Universities Space and Research Association, 320 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA
⁵ Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Kepler Center for Astro and Particle Physics, Universität Tübingen, Sand 1, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
⁶ Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva, Chemin d’Ecogia 16, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
⁷ University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research (CSPAR), 301 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville, AL 35899, USA
⁸ ST 12 Astrophysics Branch, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812, USA

Received: 11 July 2023
Accepted: 24 October 2023

Abstract

RX J0440.9+4431 is an accreting X-ray pulsar (XRP) that remained relatively unexplored until recently, when major X-ray outburst activity enabled more in-depth studies. Here, we report on the discovery of ~0.2 Hz quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) from this source observed with Fermi-GBM. The appearance of QPOs in RX J0440.9+4431 is triple transient, that is, QPOs appear only above a certain luminosity, only at certain pulse phases (namely corresponding to the peak of its sine-like pulse profile), and only for a few oscillations at time. We argue that this newly discovered phenomenon (with the appearance of triple transient QPOs – or ATTO) occurs if QPOs are fed through an accretion disk whose inner region viscosity is unstable when exposed to mass accretion rate and temperature variations. Such variations are triggered when the source switches to the supercritical accretion regime and the emission pattern changes. We also argue that the emission region configuration is likely responsible for the observed QPOs spin-phase dependence.