Published January 1, 2022 | Version v1
Journal article Open

SRG/ART-XC discovery of SRGA J204318.2+443815: Towards the complete population of faint X-ray pulsars

  • 1. Russian Acad Sci, Space Res Inst IKI, Prosoyuznaya Ul 84-32, Moscow 117997, Russia
  • 2. Kazan Fed Univ, Kremlevskaya Str 18, Kazan, Russia
  • 3. CALTECH, Div Phys Math & Astron, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA
  • 4. Univ New South Wales, Sch Phys, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
  • 5. CALTECH, Cahill Ctr Astrophys, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA

Description

We report the discovery of the new long-period X-ray pulsar SRGA J204318.2+443815/SRGe J204319.0+443820 in a Be binary system. The source was found in the second all-sky survey by the Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC telescope on board the SRG mission. The followup observations with XMM-Newton, NICER, and NuSTAR allowed us to discover a strong coherent signal in the source light curve with a period of similar to 742 s. The pulsed fraction was found to depend on an increase in energy from similar to 20% in soft X-rays to >50% at high energies, as is typical for X-ray pulsars. The source has a quite hard spectrum with an exponential cutoff at high energies and a bolometric luminosity of L-x similar or equal to 4 x 10(35) erg s(-1). The X-ray position of the source is found to be consistent with the optical transient ZTF18abjpmzf, located at a distance of similar to 8.0 kpc. Dedicated optical and infrared observations with the RTT-150, NOT, Keck, and Palomar telescopes revealed a number of emission lines (H-alpha, He I, and the Paschen and Braket series) with a strongly absorbed continuum. According to the SRG scans and archival XMM-Newton data, the source flux is moderately variable (by a factor of 4-10) on timescales of several months and years. All this suggests that SRGA J204318.2+443815/SRGe J204319.0+443820 is a new quasipersistent low-luminosity X-ray pulsar in a distant binary system with a Be-star of the B0-B2e class. Thus the SRG observatory allowed us to unveil a hidden population of faint objects, including a population of slowly rotating X-ray pulsars in Be systems.

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