INTEGRAL and RXTE observations of accreting millisecond pulsar IGR J00291+5934 in outburst

Abstract

Simultaneous observations of the accretion-powered millisecond pulsar IGR J00291+5934 by the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer during the 2004 December outburst are analysed. The average spectrum is well described by thermal Comptonization with an electron temperature of 50 keV and Thomson optical depth τT˜1 in a slab geometry. The spectral shape is almost constant during the outburst. For the first time we detect a spin-up, dotν=8.4× 10-13 Hz s-1, of an accreting millisecond pulsar. The ISGRI data reveal the pulsation of X-rays at a period of 1.67 milliseconds up to ˜150 keV. The pulsed fraction is shown to increase from 6 per cent at 6 keV to 12-20 per cent at 100 keV. This is naturally explained by the action of the Doppler effect on the exponentially cutoff Comptonization spectrum from the hot spot. The nearly sinusoidal pulses show soft lags with a complex energy dependence, increasing up to 7 keV, then decreasing to 15 keV, and seemingly saturating at higher energies.