Discovery of nearly coherent oscillations with a frequency of ~567 Hz during type-I X-ray bursts of the X-ray transient and eclipsing binary X 1658-298

Abstract

We report the discovery of nearly coherent oscillations with a frequency of 567 Hz during type-I X-ray bursts from the X-ray transient and eclipsing binary X 1658-298. If these oscillations are directly related to the neutron star rotation then the spin period of the neutron star in X 1658-298 is 1.8 ms. The oscillations can be present during the rise or decay phase of the bursts. Oscillations during the decay phase of the bursts show an increase in the frequency of 0.5 to 1 Hz. However, in one particular burst the oscillations reappear at the end of the decay phase at about 571.5 Hz. This represents an increase in oscillation frequency of about 5 Hz which is the largest frequency change seen so far in a burst oscillation. It is unclear if such a large change can be accommodated by present models used to explain the frequency evolution of the oscillations. The oscillations at 571.5 Hz are unusually soft compared to the oscillations found at 567 Hz. We also observed several bursts during which the oscillations are detected at much lower significance or not at all. Most of these bursts happen during periods of X-ray dipping behavior, suggesting that the X-ray dipping might decrease the amplitude of the oscillations (although several complications exist with this simple picture). We discuss our discovery in the framework of the neutron star spin interpretation.