Swift Observations of SMC X-3 during Its 2016–2017 Super-Eddington Outburst

Abstract

Abstract The Be X-ray pulsar SMC X-3 underwent a giant outburst from 2016 August to 2017 March, which was monitored with the Swift satellite. During the outburst, its broadband flux increased dramatically, and the unabsorbed X-ray luminosity reached an extreme value of erg s−1 around August 24. Using the Swift/XRT data, we measured the observed pulse frequency of the neutron star to compute the orbital parameters of the binary system. After applying the orbital corrections to Swift observations, we found that the spin frequency increased steadily from 128.02 mHz on August 10 and approached the spin equilibrium of ∼128.74 mHz in 2017 January with an unabsorbed luminosity of erg s−1, indicating a strong dipolar magnetic field of G at the neutron star surface. The spin-up rate is tightly correlated with its X-ray luminosity during the super-Eddington outburst. The pulse profile in the Swift/XRT data is variable, showing double peaks at the early stage of outburst and then merging into a single peak at low luminosity. Additionally, we report that a low-temperature ( keV) thermal component emerges in the phase-averaged spectra as the flux decays, and it may be produced from the outer truncated disk or the boundary layer between the exterior flow and the magnetosphere.