2006A&A...451..267M

We have monitored a type II outburst of the Be/X-ray binary MXB 0656-072 in a series of pointed RXTE observations during October through December 2003. The source spectrum shows a cyclotron resonance scattering feature at 32.8^+0.5_–0.4keV, corresponding to a magnetic field strength of 3.67^+0.06_–0.04x10¹²G and is stable through the outburst and over the pulsar spin phase. The pulsar, with an average pulse period of 160.4±0.4s, shows a spin-up of 0.45s over the duration of the outburst. From optical data, the source distance is estimated to be 3.9±0.1kpc and this is used to estimate the X-ray luminosity and a theoretical prediction of the pulsar spin-up during the outburst.