Abstract
ABSTRACT We report the results of the monitoring campaign of the transient X-ray pulsar SMC X-2 performed with the Swift/XRT telescope over the period of 2015 September–2016 January during the Type II outburst. During this event, the bolometric luminosity of the source ranged from ≃1039 down to several ×1034 erg s−1. Moreover, we discovered its dramatic drop by a factor of more than 100 below the limiting value of erg s−1, which can be interpreted as a transition to the propeller regime. These measurements make SMC X-2 the sixth pulsating X-ray source where such a transition is observed and allow us to estimate the magnetic field of the neutron star in the system B ≃ 3 × 1012 G, which is in agreement with independent results of the spectral analysis.
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