X-Ray Views of Galactic Accreting Pulsars in High-Mass X-Ray Binaries

Abstract

Accreting X-ray pulsars, located in X-ray binaries, are neutron stars with magnetic fields as strong as B∼1012–13 G. This review offers a concise overview of the accretion and radiation processes of X-ray pulsars and summarizes their rich observational features, particularly focusing on complex and variable temporal phenomena, spectral properties, and evolution, the new window for X-ray polarimetry and multi-wavelength advances. We also briefly discuss other related systems, i.e., gamma-ray binaries and pulsating ultraluminous X-ray sources.