Effects of scattering in the accretion funnel on the pulse profiles of accreting millisecond pulsars

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland
e-mail: varpu.a.ahlberg@utu.fi
² Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Received: 4 October 2023
Accepted: 16 November 2023

Abstract

The hotspot emission of accreting millisecond pulsars (AMPs) undergoes scattering in the accretion flow between the disk inner radius and the neutron star surface. The scattering optical depth of the flow depends on the photon emission angle, which is a function of the pulse phase, and reaches its maximum when the hotspot is closest to the observer. At sufficiently large optical depths the observed pulse profile should develop a secondary minimum, the depth of which depends on the accretion rate and the emission geometry. Such a dip evolving with the accretion rate might explain the phase shift and pulse profile evolution observed in AMPs during outbursts. Accounting for scattering is important for accurate modeling of the AMP pulse profiles in order to improve the accuracy of determination of the neutron star parameters, such as their masses and radii. In this paper we present a simplified analytical model for the Thomson optical depth of the accretion funnel, and apply it to simulating the pulse profiles. We show that scattering in the accretion funnel has a significant effect on the pulse profiles at accretion rates of M ≳ 10⁻¹⁰ M_⊙yr⁻¹. Our model predicts a gradual evolution of the pulse profile with the accretion rate that appears to be consistent with the observations.