Measuring the magnetic dipole moment and magnetospheric fluctuations of accretion-powered pulsars in the Small Magellanic Cloud with an unscented Kalman filter

Abstract

Many accretion-powered pulsars rotate in magnetocentrifugal disequilibrium, spinning up or down secularly over multi-year intervals. The magnetic dipole moment $\mu$ of such systems cannot be inferred uniquely from the time-averaged aperiodic X-ray flux $\langle L(t) \rangle$ and pulse period $\langle P(t) \rangle$, because the radiative efficiency of the accretion is unknown and degenerate with the mass accretion rate. Here we circumvent the degeneracy by tracking the fluctuations in the unaveraged time series $L(t)$ and $P(t)$ using an unscented Kalman filter, whereupon $\mu$ can be estimated uniquely, up to the uncertainties in the mass, radius and distance of the star. The analysis is performed on Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer observations for $24$ X-ray transients in the Small Magellanic Cloud, which have been monitored regularly for $\sim 16$ years. As well as independent estimates of $\mu$, the analysis yields time-resolved histories of the mass accretion rate and the Maxwell stress at the disk-magnetosphere boundary for each star, and hence auto- and cross-correlations involving the latter two state variables. The inferred fluctuation statistics convey important information about the complex accretion physics at the disk-magnetosphere boundary.