Title: Spectral Study of Hard X-ray Emission of LMC X-4. A Search for Cyclotron Resonance Scattering Features.
Proposal ID: 0120146
Subject category: Compact Object
Principal investigator: Lutovinov
Institute: Space Research Institute (IKI)
Abstract
Cyclotron lines in accreting X-ray pulsars result from the resonant scattering of X-rays by electrons in
Landau orbits on the intense magnetic fields near the neutron star surface. The detection of the cyclotron
line features in the pulsars spectra and measurements of their parameters provides direct and accurate
determination of the magnetic fields of neutron stars. These features appear substantially broad and cluster
between 20 and 50 keV, that are in agreement with the typical neutron star magnetic field $\sim10^{12}$ G.
The INTEGRAL instruments are unique for the studying X-ray pulsars with strong magnetic fields
($\sim10^{13}$ G), which can produce the cyclotron absorption lines at higher energies. We propose a
observation of one of such X-ray pulsars, LMC X-4, to search for cyclotron resonance scattering features.