Broad-band spectral properties of accreting X-ray binary pulsars

Broad-band spectra of accreting X-ray binary pulsars can be fitted by a phenomenological model composed of a power law with a high energy rollover above 10 keV, plus a blackbody component with a temperature of few hundred eV. While, at least qualitatively, the hard tail can be explained in terms of (inverse) Compton scattering, the origin of the soft component cannot find a unique explanation. Recently, a qualitative picture able to explain the overall broad-band spectrum of luminous X-ray pulsars was carried out by taking into account the effect of bulk Comptonization in the accretion column. After a review of these recent theoretical developments, I will present a case study of how different modeling of the continuum affect broad features, in particular the cyclotron resonance features in Vela X-1. (c) 2006 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.