A Decade in the Life of EXO 2030+375: A Multiwavelength Study of an Accreting X‐Ray Pulsar

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Abstract

Using BATSE and RXTE observations from 1991 April to 2001 August, we have detected 71 outbursts from 82 periastron passages of EXO 2030+375, a 42 s transient X-ray pulsar with a Be star companion, including several outbursts from 1993 August to 1996 April, when the source was previously believed to be quiescent. Combining BATSE, RXTE, and EXOSAT data, we have derived an improved orbital solution. Applying this solution results in a smooth profile for the spin-up rate during the giant outburst and results in evidence for a correlation between the spin-up rate and observed flux in the brighter BATSE outbursts. Infrared and Hα measurements show a decline in the density of the circumstellar disk around the Be star. This decline is followed by a sudden drop in the X-ray flux and a turnover from a spin-up trend to spin-down in the frequency history. This is the first Be/X-ray binary that shows an extended interval, about 2.5 yr, in which the global trend is spin-down, but the outbursts continue. In 1995 the orbital phase of EXO 2030+375's outbursts shifted from peaking about 6 days after periastron to peaking before periastron. The outburst phase slowly recovered to peaking at about 2.5 days after periastron. We interpret this shift in orbital phase followed by a slow recovery as evidence of a global one-armed oscillation propagating in the Be disk. This is further supported by changes in the shape of the Hα profile, which are commonly believed to be produced by a reconfiguration of the Be disk. The truncated viscous decretion disk model provides an explanation for the long series of normal outbursts and the evidence of an accretion disk in the brighter normal outbursts. Long-term multiwavelength observations such as these clearly add considerably to our knowledge of Be/X-ray binaries and the relationship among optical, infrared, and X-ray observations.

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