SXP 15.6 is a recently established Be star X-ray binary system (BeXRB) in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Like many such systems the variable X-ray emission is driven by the underlying behaviour of the mass donor Be star. It is shown here that the neutron star in this system is exceptionally close to spin equilibrium averaged over several years, with the angular momentum gain from mass transfer being almost exactly balanced by radiative losses. This makes SXP 15.6 exceptional compared to all other known members of its class in the SMC, all of whom exhibit much higher spin period changes. In this paper we report on X-ray observations of the brightest known outburst from this system. These observations are supported by contemporaneous optical and radio observations, as well as several years of historical data.
@article{arxiv.2204.12960,
title = {SXP 15.6 -- an accreting pulsar close to spin equilibrium?},
author = {M. J. Coe and I. M. Monageng and J. A. Kennea and D. A. H. Buckley and P. A. Evans and A. Udalski and Paul Groot and Steven Bloemen and Paul Vreeswijk and Vanessa McBride and Marc Klein-Wolt and Patrick Woudt and Elmar Körding and Rudolf Le Poole and Danielle Pieterse},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.12960},
year = {2022}
}