Broadband X-Ray Properties of the Gamma-Ray Binary 1FGL J1018.6-5856
An, Hongjun; Hailey, Charles J.; Kaspi, Victoria M.; Stern, Daniel; Boggs, Steven E.; Harrison, Fiona A.; Christensen, Finn E.; Craig, William W.; Zhang, William W.; Tomsick, John A.; Natalucci, Lorenzo; Bhalerao, Varun; Fuerst, Felix; Bellm, Eric
United States, Canada, India, Denmark, Italy
Abstract
We report on NuSTAR, XMM-Newton, and Swift observations of the gamma-ray binary 1FGL J1018.6-5856. We measure the orbital period to be 16.544 ± 0.008 days using Swift data spanning 1900 days. The orbital period is different from the 2011 gamma-ray measurement which was used in the previous X-ray study of An et al. using ∼400 days of Swift data, but is consistent with a new gamma-ray solution reported in 2014. The light curve folded on the new period is qualitatively similar to that reported previously, having a spike at phase 0 and broad sinusoidal modulation. The X-ray flux enhancement at phase 0 occurs more regularly in time than was previously suggested. A spiky structure at this phase seems to be a persistent feature, although there is some variability. Furthermore, we find that the source flux clearly correlates with the spectral hardness throughout all orbital phases, and that the broadband X-ray spectra measured with NuSTAR, XMM-Newton, and Swift are well fit with an unbroken power-law model. This spectrum suggests that the system may not be accretion-powered.