Evidence for a cyclotron absorption line and spectral transition in EXO 2030+375 during 2021 giant outburst

Abstract

Based on HXMT observations of EXO 2030+375 during its 2021 giant outburst, we report the analysis of pulse variations and the broadband X-ray spectrum, and find the presence of a potential cyclotron resonant scattering feature with the fundamental line at 47 keV from both average spectra and phase-resolved spectroscopy. During the outburst, the source reached an X-ray luminosity of $\sim 1\times 10^{38}$ erg /cm/s from 2-105 keV at a distance of 7.1 kpc. The X-ray pulsar at the spin period of 41.27 seconds exhibits complex timing and spectral variations with both energy and luminosity during the outburst. The shapes of the pulses profiles show the single main peak above 20 keV, while appear to exhibit multi-peak patterns in low energy bands, and the transition of pulse profiles from multi-peak to single-peak is observed at $0.8\times 10^{38}$ erg /cm/s, which suggests the evolution from the subcritical luminosity (pencil-beam dominated) to supercritical luminosity (fan-beam dominated) regimes. A dip structure before the energy of the cyclotron resonant scattering features is found in the pulse fraction-energy relation near the peak luminosity. A detailed analysis of spectral parameters showed that the power-law photon index exhibits three distinct trends as luminosity increases, and these changes also signify a spectral transition from sub-critical to super-critical regimes. The critical luminosity infers the magnetic field of $(4.8-6.0)\times 10^{12}$ G, which supports the presence of the cyclotron line at 47 keV. A Comptonization model applied for the broad X-ray spectra during the outburst also suggests the surface magnetic field ranging from $(5-9)\times 10^{12}$ G.