Evidence for a nearly orthogonal rotator in GX 301–2 with phase-resolved cyclotron resonant scattering features

Abstract

Abstract Cyclotron resonant scattering features (CRSFs) are the absorption features in the X-ray spectra of strongly magnetized accretion neutron stars (NSs), which are probably the most reliable probe to the surface magnetic fields of NSs. The high mass X-ray binary GX 301–2 exhibits a very wide, variable and complicated CRSF in the average spectra, which should be two absorption lines based on NuStar and Insight-HXMT observations. With the Insight-HXMT frequent observations, we performed the phase-resolved spectroscopy and confirmed two cyclotron absorption lines in the phase-resolved spectra, with their centroid energy ratio ∼1.6 − 1.7 in the super-critical luminosity case. A major hindrance in understanding those CRSFs is the very poorly constrained magnetic inclination angle, which is also a fundamental property of a NS and key to understanding the emission characteristics of a pulsar. Comparing the phase-resolved CRSF with simulated X-ray spectra, the magnetic inclination angle is found to be ≳ 70○, i.e., nearly orthogonal between the NS’s spin and magnetic axies. The implications of an orthogonal rotator and magnetic structure evolution in the accreting X-ray binary are also discussed.