A&A 594, A31 (2016)

DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201629035 Astronomy

c ESO 2016
&
Astrophysics

A physical scenario for the high and low X-ray luminosity states
in the transitional pulsar PSR J1023+0038
S. Campana1 , F. Coti Zelati2, 1, 3 , A. Papitto4, 5 , N. Rea3, 4 , D. F. Torres4, 6 , M. C. Baglio2, 1 , and P. D’Avanzo1

1
INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via E. Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate (LC), Italy
e-mail: [email protected]
2
Università dell’Insubria, Dipartimento di Scienza e Alta Tecnologia, via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como, Italy
3
Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, Postbus 94249, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4
Instituto de Ciencias de l’Espacio (ICE, CSIC-IEEC), Campus UAB, Carrer Can Magrans s/n, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
5
INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via di Frascati 33, 00044 Monteporzio Catone (Roma), Italy
6
ICREA Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, 08010 Barcelona, Spain

Received 1 June 2016 / Accepted 21 July 2016

ABSTRACT

The binary system PSR J1023+0038 (J1023) hosts a neutron star and a low-mass companion. J1023 is the best studied transitional
pulsar, alternating a faint eclipsing millisecond radio pulsar state to a brighter X-ray active state. At variance with other low-mass X-ray
binaries, this active state reaches luminosities of only ∼1034 erg s−1 , showing strong, fast variability. In the active state, J1023 displays:
i) a high state (LX ∼ 7 × 1033 erg s−1 , 0.3−80 keV) occurring ∼80% of the time and during which X-ray pulsations at the neutron star
spin period are detected (pulsed fraction ∼8%); ii) a low state (LX ∼ 1033 erg s−1 ) during which pulsations are not detected (< ∼3%);
and iii) a flaring state during which sporadic flares occur in excess of ∼1034 erg s−1 , with no pulsation too. The transition between the
high and the low states is very rapid, on a ∼10 s timescale. Here we propose a plausible physical interpretation of the high and low
states based on the (fast) transition among the propeller state and the radio pulsar state. We modelled the XMM-Newton spectra of the
high, low and radio pulsar states, and found a good agreement with this physical picture.
Key words. pulsars: general – pulsars: individual: PSR J1023+0038 – stars: neutron – X-rays: binaries

1. Introduction (i.e. accreting systems) and later on revealed as radio pulsars.

The direct transition between the two states was caught in IGR
Millisecond radio pulsars (MSPs) are the final outcome of J18245−2452 (in the globular cluster M 28, Papitto et al. 2013),
the accretion process taking place in low mass X-ray binaries where an X-ray source coincident with a radio pulsar went in
(LMXBs). The recycling scenario has been suggested to explain outburst (showing X-ray pulsations at the spin period of the ra-
the spin up of a neutron star accreting from a disc in a LMXB dio pulsar) and turned to quiescence reappearing again as a ra-
to millisecond spin periods resulting, in the end, in the neutron dio pulsar, within a few weeks. These sources are now known as
star being turned on as an MSP (Alpar et al. 1982; Smarr & transitional pulsars.
Blandford 1976). Confirmation of this scenario came with the PSR J1023+0038 (J1023 in the following) is a particularly
discovery of coherent periodicities during type I X-ray bursts well-studied system due to its proximity (1.37 ± 0.04 kpc, Deller
in persistent LMXBs (Strohmayer et al. 1996) and, soon after, et al. 2012) and brightness. J1023 underwent a state change from
with the detection of coherent pulsations in the X-ray flux of the MSP to a brighter (accreting) state during June 2013. This im-
transient LMXB SAX J1808.4−3658 (Wijnands & van der Klis plied the disappearance of the radio pulsed signal (Stappers et al.
1998). 2014) as well as an increase by a factor of ∼5 in the GeV flux
At the end of the evolutionary path, “spider” MSPs were (Stappers et al. 2014; Takata et al. 2014). In the 0.5−10 keV
discovered before X-ray periodicities in LMXBs (e.g. Fruchter band the system brightened by a factor of ∼30−300, reaching lu-
et al. 1988). These are binary systems consisting of a radio minosities up to a few 1034 erg s−1 (Patruno et al. 2014; Takata
MSP and a low-mass companion (either a white dwarf, black et al. 2014; Coti Zelati et al. 2014; Bogdanov et al. 2015) with re-
widow, or a low-mass star, redback), showing signs of interac- spect to the quiescent (radio pulsar) state (Archibald et al. 2010;
tion between the radio pulsar and the companion by means of Bogdanov et al. 2011). In the optical, the system brightened
extended radio eclipses, originating from spatial regions larger too by ∼1 mag and showed also the presence of several broad
than the companion star, for example in an intra-binary shock emission lines typical of an accretion disc (Halpern et al. 2013;
front (Roberts 2011). In the past it was not clear on which Coti Zelati et al. 2014).
timescale the transition from LMXB to MSP occurs and if it Deep X-ray observations of the active state have been
happens only once or repeatedly. Recently, systems alternating carried out. Unlike transient LMXBs, J1023, as well as the
between the MSP and the LMXB status were found. First, strong other transitional pulsars, shows strong X-ray variability (e.g.
indirect evidence that the latter was indeed the case was put Linares 2014). J1023 varies its X-ray luminosity over the
forward by PSR J1023+0038 (Archibald et al. 2009, see also ∼1032.5 −1034.5 erg s−1 range showing three distinct states:
XSS J12270−4859, De Martino et al. 2010; Bassa et al. 2014). i) a high luminosity state (∼7 × 1033 erg s−1 , 0.3−79 keV
These systems were classified as magnetic cataclysmic variables Tendulkar et al. 2014) that occurs for the majority of the time

Article published by EDP Sciences A31, page 1 of 7

 A&A 594, A31 (2016)

(∼80%) and during which coherent pulsations are observed disc at a lower rate. Assuming the mass accretion rate estimated
with a rms pulsed fraction of ∼8%; ii) a low luminosity state from the X-ray luminosity one gets rA ∼ 148 km. The Alfvén
(20% of the time) with a lower X-ray luminosity ∼1033 erg s−1 radius in case of disc accretion differs by a small factor from the
(0.3−79 keV) and during which no pulsations are detected (rms one derived in spherical symmetry, rm = km rA , with km ranging
95% upper limit of 2.4%); iii) a flaring state with higher lumi- from 0.5 to 1 (Ghosh & Lamb 1978; Bozzo et al. 2009; Papitto &
nosity up to a few 1034 erg s−1 , with no pulsations, occurring for Torres 2015). With these boundaries the magnetospheric radius
a few percent of the time (see Archibald et al. 2015; Bogdanov for disc accretion is rm ∼ 74−148 km.
et al. 2015). Transitions from and to the low and high states The corotation radius (at which matter in Keplerian orbit
are very rapid with a timescale of the order of ∼10 s. Similar corotates with the neutron star, rc = (G M P2 /4 π2 )1/3 , with P
variability has also been observed in the optical band showing the spin period) for J1023 is rc = 24 km and the light cylin-
ingress and egress times in the 12−35 s range with 20 s median der radius (at which field lines anchored to the neutron star ro-
(Shahbaz et al. 2015). This fast time variability among a high and tate at the speed of light, rlc = c P/2 π, with c the light speed)
a low X-ray state has also been observed in XSS J12270−4859 is rlc = 80 km. According to standard accretion theory (e.g.
(Bogdanov et al. 2014; Papitto et al. 2015). Illarionov & Sunyaev 1975; Campana et al. 1998) if rm > rlc ,
When in quiescence J1023 is detected as a radio pulsar as suggested above, matter cannot accrete onto the neutron star
and shows a smaller X-ray luminosity of ∼9 × 1031 erg s−1 surface, rather the neutron star should get rid of the infalling
(0.5−10 keV), as well as an X-ray pulsed fraction of ∼11 ± 2% matter and shine as a radio pulsar.
(Archibald et al. 2010; Bogdanov et al. 2011). This simple calculation shows that we need more pressure
A few scenarios have been put forward that attempt to ac- from the infalling matter to push deeper inside the neutron star
count for the wealth of data from the radio to the GeV energy magnetosphere, in order to have accretion of some matter on the
range. These involve a propeller mechanism, an engulfed radio surface and generate X-ray pulsations. The easiest way is to have
pulsar, direct accretion onto the neutron star, as well as a pos- a larger amount of accreting matter (i.e. a larger Ṁ with respect
sible radio jet (Patruno et al. 2014; Takata et al. 2014; Papitto to that estimated from the X-ray luminosity). This matter, how-
& Torres 2015; Coti Zelati et al. 2014; Li et al. 2014; Deller ever, should not release its entire gravitational energy content
et al. 2015, to mention a few). However, a physical interpreta- even if stopped at the magnetospheric boundary (i.e. G M Ṁ/rm ),
tion for the fast transitions mentioned above is not available at simply because we do not detect it. This additional matter can-
present. In this paper we focus on low and high X-ray emission not evaporate along its accretion flow toward the neutron star nor
states, and in particular, we focus on describing a possible mech- can it be channelled into a large base jet, because we need mat-
anism that may generate these transitions. We base our analysis ter pressure at the magnetospheric boundary. A possibility is to
on XMM-Newton data, which provide the highest signal to noise have an advection-dominated accretion flow where radiation is
data. In particular, we focus on one possible mechanism showing trapped into the disc and only a percentage of what is produced
that it works for this source, without willing to assess its unicity. can be radiated (Narayan et al. 1996). With more matter pressure
In Sect. 2 we briefly describe the physical interpretation the innermost disc boundary can be pushed within the light cylin-
of state changes. In Sect. 3 we describe the extraction of der radius and close to the corotation radius. If this happens, mat-
XMM-Newton spectra and in Sect. 4 their fitting. A brief tim- ter can still no longer accrete unimpeded onto the neutron star
ing analysis is described in Sect. 5. In Sect. 6 we discuss our surface (propeller regime), being halted by the super-Keplerian
results and draw conclusions. rotation of the magnetosphere. In the propeller regime however,
some matter can leak through the magnetosphere reaching the
star surface (e.g. Romanova et al. 2004, 2005; Ustyugova et al.
2. The physical picture
2006). This can generate the observed coherent pulsations in
The neutron star’s parameters were determined when the system X-rays. If this were the case, in the X-ray band we should ob-
was hosting an active radio pulsar, with a spin period of 1.69 ms serve two contributions: radiation from the advective disc up
and a dipolar magnetic field of 9.7 × 107 G (Archibald et al. to distance between the corotation and the light cylinder radius,
2009; Deller et al. 2012). The binary system has an orbital period as well as a pulsed X-ray component arising from matter leak-
of 4.75 h and the companion is a ∼0.24 M star, possibly not ing through the magnetosphere and accreting onto the surface.
filling entirely its Roche lobe (McConnell et al. 2014). A non-thermal component associated to a hot corona above the
The high X-ray state is characterised by X-ray pulsa- disc, as usually observed in X-ray binaries and in active galac-
tions (rms pulsed fraction ∼8%) and a high luminosity (∼7 × tic nuclei, should complete the picture. More compelling to this
1033 erg s−1 , 0.3−79 keV, resulting in a bolometric correction case can be the action of the neutron star magnetosphere onto the
∼2 with respect to the 0.3−10 keV energy band, Papitto & infalling matter generating a non-thermal continuum as a result
Torres 2015; Tendulkar et al. 2014). The most direct interpre- of the propeller action (Papitto & Torres 2015).
tation to account for coherent pulsations is that some matter The low X-ray state instead is characterised by the lack
reaches the neutron star surface. Taking this at face value, if of X-ray pulsation, with an upper limit of <2.4% on the rms
the high state luminosity is converted into an accretion rate pulsed fraction, well below the value observed in the high state.
( Ṁ) as L = G M Ṁ/R, with M and R the neutron star mass The 0.3−10 keV luminosity is a factor ∼6 lower than the high
(M = 1.4 M ) and radius (R = 10 km), and G the gravitational state one, at a level of ∼5 × 1032 erg s−1 (Archibald et al.
constant, one obtains Ṁ = 4 × 1013 g s−1 . With this rate one can 2015; Bogdanov et al. 2015), resulting in a 0.3−79 keV lu-
compute the Alfvén radius rA at which the pressure of the neu- minosity of ∼1033 erg s−1 (Tendulkar et al. 2014). In order to
tron star magnetosphere is able to halt the inflowing matter in have pulsations some matter has to reach the neutron star sur-
spherical symmetry (rA ∼ µ4 /(2 G M Ṁ 2 )1/7 , with µ = B R3 the face (unless one accepts a rotationally powered pulsar to re-
magnetic dipole moment). Here Ṁ is the effective mass inflow main permanently active, which is subject to strong caveats, see
rate at the magnetospheric boundary. It can be lower than the Papitto & Torres 2015). According to numerical simulations, in
mass inflow rate from the companion star if matter is lost dur- the propeller regime some matter always finds its way to the
ing the inflowing process or viscously transmitted through the star surface, possibly except when a “strong” propeller sets in

A31, page 2 of 7
 S. Campana et al.: A physical scenario for the high and low X-ray luminosity states in the transitional pulsar PSR J1023+0038

when matter is not accreting is driven by the outer and inner

crust heat content and it should be cooler (or hotter) than the
temperature experimented during the accretion phase, depending
on the temperature contrast among the innermost and outermost
regions. The cooling time of the neutron star atmosphere is very
short so that the switch between an accretion-driven emission
to a crustal-driven emission is quite fast (Campana et al. 1998;
Brown et al. 1998; Colpi et al. 2001).
When J1023 is in quiescence a radio pulsar has been de-
tected. In this case the X-ray luminosity is lower, ∼1032 erg s−1
(0.3−10 keV; Archibald et al. 2010; Bogdanov et al. 2011;
Li et al. 2014) and pulsations are detected in the radio and
X-ray bands. The rms pulsed fraction in X-rays is 11 ± 2%
(1σ confidence level; Archibald et al. 2011). The pulsar
X-ray spectrum can be described by a neutron star atmo-
sphere plus power law model. This is not directly evident from
XMM-Newton (Archibald et al. 2010) and Chandra (Bogdanov
et al. 2011) spectra alone, but, when fitted together, this spectral
model provides a much better description of the data (5.4σ based
on an F-test). This model is typical of radio pulsars with a ther-
mal component coming from the polar cap and a power law of
magnetospheric origin.
The flaring state in this description stands apart. It can be
hardly related to an increase of the mass inflow rate since pulsa-
tions are not even detected. It could instead be ascribed to flaring
activity in the disc, possibly related to some magnetic reconnec-
tion (Zurita et al. 2003) or to some plasmoid ejections in a jet.
We do not consider this state any further.

2.1. The spectral model

Distinguished among LMXBs, J1023 is characterised by
three different states when its X-ray luminosity drops below
Fig. 1. Cartoon view (not to scale) of the three states of J1023. The high ∼1034 erg s−1 , apart form the flaring state. According to our pic-
state is depicted in the top panel, the low state in the middle panel and
the pulsar, quiescent state in the lowest panel. The coronation radius is
ture, in the high state the X-ray spectrum could be described by
24 km and the light cylinder radius is 80 km. The magnetospheric radius a composite model made by a power law (non-thermal compo-
changes with the J0123 state. See text for more details. nent), an advection dominated disc with free temperature and in-
ner radius (this is achieved by using the DISKPBB model within
XSPEC with p = 0.5), and a heated polar cap emission mod-
elled with NSATMOS (Heinke et al. 2006) within XSPEC with
(Romanova et al. 2005). However, due to the low neutron star a free radius (smaller than the neutron star radius) and tempera-
magnetic field and fast spin period, the light cylinder radius is of ture. The low state is more complex. According to our picture, an
the same order of the corotation radius and a strong propeller is enshrouded radio pulsar and an outer disc should coexist in the
difficult to build up (D’Angelo & Spruit 2010). We are then led low state. To model the X-ray spectrum in this state we should
to require that the system must expel the incoming matter out- include a power law non-thermal component (describing either
side the light cylinder radius to avoid accretion. Pushing out the the activity in the outermost parts of the disc or, more probably,
material from the light cylinder will reactivate the pulsar particle the shock interaction of the radio pulsar wind with the incom-
wind and prevent matter from falling onto the neutron star. A ra- ing matter, in this last case we would predict Γ ∼ 2, as due
dio pulsar can eventually turn on, even if its reactivation requires to synchrotron radiation), a disc component with an inner ra-
more stringent constraints. If this were the case, its detectability dius much larger than the light cylinder radius and a radio pulsar
would be problematic due to the enshrouding by a large wealth emission made by a thermal component and a magnetospheric
of material. A shock front between the relativistic particle wind one (NSATMOS+POW). We require that the disc temperature and
and the incoming matter should develop, as observed in several inner disc radius are such that they lie on the same T (r) ∝ r−p
spider pulsars (Tavani 1991; Kulkarni et al. 1992). This front can curve in the high and low states, that is, the high state will have
convert ∼1−10% of the rotational power into X-rays with a typ- a higher temperature and a smaller inner disc radius, whereas
ical synchrotron spectrum with Γ ∼ 2 (Arons & Tavani 1993). the low state will have a lower temperature and a larger inner
Solutions with a disc surviving just outside the light cylinder ex- disc radius lying on the same T (r) ∝ r−p curve. The size of the
ist (Ekşi & Alpar 2005). This outer disc should remain in place polar cap is held fixed among the high and low states, even if
and accumulate matter during the low state. Finally, the particle the temperature is allowed to vary. The magnetospheric pulsar
wind is quenched and disc advances back toward the corotation component is free. Finally, in our picture the quiescent state is
radius. completely determined by the low state spectrum with only the
Even if matter is prevented from falling directly onto the neu- pulsar components (thermal and non-thermal) being present, but
tron star surface, the polar caps will still be hot because of the fixed in all their parameters to those of the low state. All spectra
short timescale of the state transitions, and can in principle still will be corrected for absorption using the same absorbing col-
generate pulsations at a lower level. The polar cap temperature umn density. See Fig. 1 for a picture of our physical scenario.
A31, page 3 of 7
 A&A 594, A31 (2016)

Table 1. J1023 XMM-Newton/Chandra observation log.

Obs. ID. Obs. start Instrument Duration High state Low state
(YYYY-MM-DD) (ks) dur. – ks (counts) dur. – ks (counts)
0720030101 2013-11-10 pn (FT) 128.4 85.2 (287431) 25.0 (21482)
MOS (SW) 128.8 83.6 (169920) 24.6 (8466)
0742610101 2014-06-10 pn (FT) 116.7 63.8 (189226) 26.2 (12453)
MOS (SW) 118.5 62.7 (138779) 25.9 (8379)
0748390101 2014-11-21 pn (FT) 32.4
MOS (SW) 34.3
0748390501 2014-11-23 pn (FT) 32.9 61.0 (180708) 19.3 (9386)
MOS (SW) 34.8 60.0 (128561) 19.1 (6026)
0748390601 2014-11-28 pn (FT) 16.9
MOS (SW) 20.6
0748390701 2014-12-17 pn (FT) 32.5
MOS (SW) 34.4
0560180801 2008-11-26 MOS (FW) 34.2 Quiescence (2136)
11075 (Chandra) 2010-03-26 ACIS-S 86.2 Quiescence (3306)
Notes. Exposure times for MOS refers to the MOS2 detector (MOS1 times are very similar), after cleaning for soft proton flares. MOS counts
for high and low state spectra are the sum of MOS1 and MOS2 counts. Exposure times and total counts for the last set of observations in the
transitional state were summed up.

3. Data analysis good time intervals by adopting the same thresholds for the count
rate ranges as in Bogdanov et al. (2015) to disentangle the dif-
We consider three sets of recent observations of J1023 with ferent modes. With these curves we identified low and high (and
XMM-Newton. These are long observations carried out dur- flaring) intervals for J1023, following closely Bogdanov et al.
ing the period 2013−2014. The first two sets (Nov. 2013 and (2015) prescriptions: good time intervals (GTI) were generated
Jun. 2014) were discussed in Bogdanov et al. (2015) and for the low mode requiring the overall count rate to lie in the
Archibald et al. (2015). The last set comprising four ToO ob- 0.0−2.1 c s−1 interval and for the high mode in the 4.1−11 c s−1 .
servations (Nov. 2014) is described in Jaodand et al. (2016), see Spectra were extracted using these GTIs for the two modes ac-
Table 1 for details. cordingly. Ancillary response files (arf) were generated for each
Data reduction was performed with the XMM-Newton sci- spectrum using arfgen and redistribution matrices were gen-
ence analysis software (SAS) version xmmsas_20131209_1901- erated for each observation using rmfgen. MOS1 and MOS2
13.0.0 and the latest calibration files. We considered only EPIC data and responses were summed for each observation. Data
data. Data were reprocessed with emproc and epproc locally. concerning the Nov. 2014 campaign, consisting of four observa-
Data were grade filtered using pattern 0−12 (0−4) for MOS (pn) tions, were summed and response files weighted along the total
data, and FLAG==0 and #XMMEA_EM(P) options. MOS data counts number. MOS spectra were rebinned to have 100 counts
were all acquired with the thin filter and in small window mode; per spectral bin, pn data to have 200 counts due to the higher
pn data with the thin filter and in timing (fast-timing) mode. background. MOS data were fitted in the 0.3−10 keV energy
Proton flares affected only the latest part of the Jun. 2014 and range, pn data in the 0.6−10 keV due to the larger calibration
one of the Nov. 2014 observations, and were filtered out. The uncertainties in timing mode.
source events from the pn were extracted using a 7 pixel re- Quiescent data were taken from a 34 ks XMM-Newton ob-
gion centred on source. The MOS events were extracted from a servation (Archibald et al. 2010) and a 83 ks Chandra observa-
870 pixel circular region centred on source. Background events tion (Bogdanov et al. 2011). XMM-Newton data were analysed as
were extracted from similar regions close to the source and free above, without considering however pn data (operated in timing
of sources. RGS data were not considered in the following, con- mode) due to the faintness of the source. No proton flare episode
taining less than 10% of MOS counts. No narrow emission or ab- is present in the data. MOS1 and MOS2 data were collected with
sorption lines were detected. We included a zero-width iron line the thin filter and were summed up. Chandra data were acquired
with an energy free to vary within the 6.40−6.93 keV range and in standard timed exposure (TE) mode with the ACIS-S detec-
derive a 90% upper limit on the equivalent width of <23, <86, tor. Data were first reprocessed using the chandra_repro tool and
and <115 eV, for the high, low, and quiescent states, respectively. then analysed using CIAO 4.6 (CALDB 4.5.9). Photons were
For each observation, we combined the 0.3−10 keV extracted from a 500 circular region and the background from an
background-subtracted and exposure-corrected light curves of annular region free of sources. All the spectra were rebinned to
the three CCD cameras (all binned at a time resolution of 10 s) have 50 counts per spectral bin. Data were retained within the
using the epiclccorr tool in the SAS and the FTOOLS pack- 0.3−8 keV energy range.
age. As has already been reported in previous studies the to-
tal light curves are characterised by a low rate mode, a high
rate mode, as well as random flares. The count rate ranges for 4. Spectral fitting
the high and low modes are remarkably stable over all obser- We took the existing XMM-Newton data on J1023 (360 ks) and
vations (see also Bogdanov et al. 2015; Archibald et al. 2015; separate them into a (pure) high state (210 ks), a low state
Jaodand et al. 2016). For this reason, we decided to generate (70 ks), and a quiescent radio pulsar state (34 ks XMM-Newton

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 S. Campana et al.: A physical scenario for the high and low X-ray luminosity states in the transitional pulsar PSR J1023+0038

Table 2. J1023 X-ray spectral fits.

Parameter High Low Quiescence

state state
NH (1020 cm−2 ) 5.25+0.63
−0.60 tied all tied all
Power law ΓD 1.54 ± 0.02 2.00 ± 0.03 –
Power law ND (10−4 ) 16.7 ± 0.5 2.9 ± 0.7 –
Disc T (eV) 138+21
−17 <43 –
Disc norm. Nd 103+109
−55 >1.1 × 104 –
NS atmos. T (eV) 155+16
−14 75+8
−7 tied Low State
NS atmos. Em. Radius (km) 2.6+0.6
−0.5 tied all tied all
NS Power law ΓP – 0.97 ± 0.07 tied Low State
NS Power law NP (10−5 ) – 3.3 ± 0.3 tied Low State

Notes. Errors are 90% confidence level for one parameter of interest. The fit provides a χ2red = 1.032 for 3885 degrees of freedom, after the addition
of a systematic error of 2%. The effective neutron star temperatures were not corrected for the gravitational redshift. Radii were computed using a
1.37 kpc source distance

plus 83 ks Chandra). We fit the corresponding X-ray spectra with

a composite model.
As described above, the high state is modelled by a power
law, a radiatively-inefficient disc with free temperature and in-
ner radius (this is achieved by using the DISKPBB model within
XSPEC with p = 0.5), and a heated polar cap emission modelled
with NSATMOS with a free radius (smaller than the NS radius) and
temperature.
A different power law, the same radiatively-inefficient disc
with free temperature (and radius computed accordingly), to-
gether with a heated polar cap emission at the same emission
radius plus a free power law accounting for the magnetospheric
emission was adopted for the low state modelling.
The quiescent radio pulsar emission has been fitted with ex-
actly the same neutron star atmosphere component and exactly
the same magnetospheric component as the low state, with no Fig. 2. XMM-Newton and Chandra spectra. Upper spectra (in red) refer
additional parameters. to the pn (0.6−10 keV) and MOS (0.3−10 keV) high state spectra. Mid-
All spectra were corrected for absorption using the same ab- dle spectra (in green) refer to pn and MOS low state spectra. The lowest
sorbing column density1 (TBABS, Wilms et al. 2000, using VERN spectra (in blue) refer to the quiescent state (among the two curves the
cross sections and wilm abundance pattern). The same normal- highest refers to XMM-Newton data and the lowest to Chandra data).
isation constant was adopted for all the low state and quiescent The fitting model is described in the text.
MOS spectra (fixed to one). The other MOS constants were all
within 4% of the fixed value. Constants for the pn were all 10%
of 42◦ (Archibald et al. 2009, 2013), one gets for the high state
lower and for Chandra ACIS-S 3% higher. This indicate that
an inner disc radius rhigh = 21+9
−7 km, very close to the corotation
the spectra taken in the high and low state over more than one
radius of 24 km and fully consistent, given the uncertainties, to
year are really stable. Given the huge number of counts heavily
lie within the corotation radius and the light cylinder radius (i.e.
binned, we assigned a 2% systematic uncertainty to each spec-
in the propeller state). The temperature of the disc in the low
tral channel (added in quadrature), as recommended by Smith
state cannot be determined but only an upper limit can be set
et al. (2015)2 , The fit worked very well with χ2red = 1.032 for
(consistent with our predictions). This, in turn, provides a lower
3885 degrees of freedom (see Table 2 and Fig. 2), with a null hy-
limit to the inner disc radius of >
∼210 km. This is well outside the
pothesis probability of 7.9%. In case of no systematic error we
light cylinder radius.
have χ2red = 1.135.
We find that the disc component is highly significant in the
high state, with an F-test probability of 10−9 (6.1σ). On the con- 5. Timing analysis
trary, the disc component vanishes in the low state. The abso- Following Archibald et al. (2015), we adopted a definition of
lute values of the radii are difficult to work out, given the known the pulsed flux in terms of root-mean-squared (rms) modulation.
problems in associating the inner disc region to the model nor- For a signal f (φ) (with φ) the phase angle the rms modulation is
malisation (Kubota et al. 1998), easily involving uncertainties by defined as:
a factor of >
∼2. Taken at face value and with a system inclination Z
Frms = ( f (φ) − f¯)2 dφ,
1
We tested that the column densities of the three states are consistent
within the errors, being the one relative to the pulsar quiescent state the
lowest. where f¯ is the mean of the signal. With this definition Archibald
2
See http://xmm2.esac.esa.int/docs/documents/ et al. (2015) estimated an rms pulsed fraction of 8.13 ± 0.14%
CAL-TN-0018.pdf in the high state (0.3−10 keV), a 95% confidence level upper
A31, page 5 of 7
 A&A 594, A31 (2016)

limit of <2.8% in the low state (0.3−10 keV), and 11 ± 2% in the

quiescent radio pulsar state in the 0.3−2.5 keV energy range and
with a non-detection in the 0.3−10 keV (Archibald et al. 2015).
Based on our picture, in the low state we have a heavily en-
shrouded pulsar. The pulsed signal of the pulsar can in principle
be detected in the low state. We rescale the observed pulsed frac-
tion in the quiescent state to the higher total flux in the low state.
We can predict to detect X-ray pulsations in the low state at a
level of ∼2% in the soft energy band (0.3−2.5 keV).
We searched the two longest uninterrupted XMM-Newton
observations (0720030101 and 0742610101) for this pulsation. Fig. 3. Schematic view of the spectral decomposition proposed in this
article. Note that the quiescent emission increases by a factor of ∼5 if
We first isolated the low state as described above. After barycen-
the power law component extends up to 100 keV.
tring the data, we corrected for the 4.75 h orbital modulation and
restricted the energy range of the pn data to 0.3−2.5 keV. We then
searched for pulsation at the known period, determined from the described by a power law with index 1.8 ± 0.2, with a cutoff
analysis of the corresponding high state (and in full agreement at an energy of ∼2.3 GeV (Takata et al. 2014), consistent with
with published results, Bogdanov et al. 2014; Archibald et al. our photon index. A propeller model to account for the main
2015). We do not detect any pulsed signal and derive 90% confi- characteristics of the high state has been developed by Papitto
dence level upper limits on the fractional rms pulsed emission of & Torres (2015). In their model the inflowing matter is pro-
<3.1% and <3.6% for the two observations, respectively. These pelled outwards by the rapidly rotating neutron star magneto-
were derived fitting the pulse profile with two harmonics (as the sphere. Electrons can be accelerated to energies of a few GeV
radio pulsar pulsed profile) and subtracting for the background. at the turbulent disc-magnetosphere boundary. Synchrotron and
These limits, even though they are tight, still leave open the pos- self-synchrotron Compton emission is able to account for the ob-
sibility that a radio pulsar-like signal is present in the low state served X-ray and GeV emission, respectively (Papitto & Torres
data. 2015). This model applies tout-court to our description of the
high state. Additional ingredients to model the high state X-ray
6. Discussion and conclusions spectrum are a radiatively inefficient accretion disc, able to push
the inner boundary close to the corotation radius but not emitting
Transitional pulsars, and J1023 and XSS J12270–4859 in par- too much luminosity and some matter leaking through the neu-
ticular, show rapid (<∼10 s) transitions from a high X-ray lumi- tron star magnetosphere to account for the pulsed emission. The
nosity state during which pulsations are observed (rms pulsed inner disc radius derived from spectral modelling is consistent to
fraction ∼8%) to a low state a factor of ∼7 dimmer and showing lie close to the corotation radius. The fraction of the flux emitted
no signs of pulsations (rms pulsed fraction <2.4%; Bogdanov from the neutron star component is 7%. This flux arises from a
et al. 2014; Archibald et al. 2015; De Martino et al. 2013; Papitto small region on the surface and can give rise to pulsations. Its
et al. 2015). Similar transitions were also observed in the opti- incidence on the total flux is consistent with the observed rms
cal band in J1023, possibly indicating a slightly longer transi- pulsed fraction of 8%.
tion time ∼20 s (Shahbaz et al. 2015). These state transitions are In the low state of J1023 a radio pulsar suddenly turns on.
hardly explained by current modelling of these sources. The spectral model to fit the low state X-ray spectrum is made
Transitional pulsars and IGR J18245−2452 in particular of a power law with Γ ∼ 2. This can be interpreted as the shock
(Papitto et al. 2013) have shown the possibility to alternate emission coming from the interaction of the relativistic pulsar
episodes of accretion on the neutron star surface to radio pulsar wind with the inflowing matter. The fraction of spin-down lu-
activity on a timescale of less than a week. In this paper we pro- minosity converted into 0.3−10 keV luminosity is ∼2%, which
pose a physical scenario to account for rapid transitions among is in line with other radio pulsars converting their spin-down
high and low states on a much faster timescale. We postulate power into X-rays. The accretion disc in this model is pushed
that transitions among the propeller regime and the radio pulsar outside the light cylinder radius and our spectral model does not
regime are the main driver for the high and low X-ray luminosity require the presence of a disc in this state, allowing us to set a
states. This implies that J1023 can push matter outside the light lower limit to the disc inner edge well outside the light cylin-
cylinder and this can get back close to the corotation radius on der. Since a radio pulsar is active in this state we added two fur-
a 10 s timescale. The dynamical timescale or free fall timescale ther spectral components. These are motivated by X-ray obser-
at the light cylinder radius are much shorter than 10 s (of the vations of radio pulsars. One is thermal in origin, arising from
order of milliseconds), whereas the disc viscous timescale is in- the neutron star polar cap and the other is of magnetospheric ori-
stead longer (hundreds of seconds). This indicates that the disc gin. These two components were used to fit simultaneously an
replenishment should occur on a free-fall-like timescale. Even if XMM-Newton and a Chandra spectra taken when J1023 was in
we do not investigate the physical mechanism for alternating the quiescence with a radio pulsar detected in the radio band. The ra-
high and low states, we developed a spectral model to account dius of the thermal component is kept the same for all the three
for the observed spectra as well as the quiescent (radio pulsar) states. This nested spectral model can satisfactorily reproduce
state. This model is clearly ad hoc and cannot be proven to be the X-ray spectra of the three different states (see Table 3 and
unique, but it provides a satisfactory description of the observed Fig. 3). Even if active during the low state, a radio pulsar would
characteristics. be hardly detectable due to the large amount of ionised mate-
In the high X-ray state J1023 is in the propeller regime. The rial in the surroundings, producing a large free-free absorption
X-ray spectrum consists of a non-thermal component, which ac- (Campana et al. 1998; Burderi et al. 2001; Coti Zelati et al. 2014;
counts for the majority of the flux. This can come from a hot Deller et al. 2015).
corona above the disc or (better) from the propeller shocking The flat-spectrum radio emission can be associated to an out-
the inflowing matter. Indeed the average Fermi/LAT spectrum is flow from the system, arising from synchrotron emission. This
A31, page 6 of 7
 S. Campana et al.: A physical scenario for the high and low X-ray luminosity states in the transitional pulsar PSR J1023+0038

Table 3. 0.3−10 keV fluxes of the different components of J1023.

Parameter Total/spectral components High state Low state Quiescence

Total 1.4 × 10−11 2.0 × 10−12 5.6 × 10−13

Power law 1.2 × 10 (89.8%) 1.4 × 10−12 (71.7%)
−11
–
Absorbed flux (erg s−1 cm−2 ) Ineffic. disc 4.8 × 10−13 (3.4%) <0.1 × 10−13 (–) –
NS thermal 9.5 × 10 (6.8%) 0.4 × 10−13 (1.9%)
−13
0.4 × 10−13 (6.5%)
Magn. Power law – 5.2 × 10−13 (26.4%) 5.2 × 10−13 (93.5%)
Unabsorbed flux (erg s−1 cm−2 ) Total 1.5 × 10−11 2.2 × 10−12 5.9 × 10−13
Luminosity (erg s−1 ) Total 3.4 × 1033 5.0 × 1032 1.3 × 1032
Notes. Fluxes refer to the mean of the MOS detectors. The calibration constant is 0.92 for the pn and 1.02 for Chandra/ACIS-S. The fractional
contribution of each component to the total absorbed flux is indicated in parentheses. The ratio between the high and low state fluxes is 7.1, and
the ratio between the low state and quiescent fluxes is 3.5.

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