The Long-term Spin-down Trend of Ultraluminous X-Ray Pulsar M82 X-2

Abstract

The discovery in 2014 of the pulsation from the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) M82 X-2 has changed our view of ULXs. Because of the relatively short baseline over which pulsations have been detected so far, M82 X-2's spin state had been assumed to be in an equilibrium state. Using Chandra and XMM-Newton archive data, we are able to investigate the pulsation of M82 X-2 back to 2005 and 2001. The newly determined spin frequencies clearly show a long-term spin-down trend. If this trend is caused by magnetic threading, we infer a dipolar magnetic field of ∼1.2 × 1013 G and that a mild beaming factor (∼4) is needed to match the braking torque with the mass accretion torque. On the other hand, there are NuSTAR observations showing instantaneous spin-down behaviors, which might favor a variable prograde/retrograde flow scenario for M82 X-2.