Discovery of a faint 437 s X-ray pulsar 1SAX J1452.8-5949

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A new pulsar, 1SAX J1452.8-5949, was discovered during a BeppoSAX galactic plane survey on 1999 July 20 at R.A.=14h 52m 49s, Dec=-59 49' 18'' (J2000) with a 90% confidence uncertainty radius of 50''. Coherent pulsations were detected with a barycentric period of a 437.4 +/- 1.4 s. The X-ray spectrum can be modeled by a power-law with a photon index of 1.4 +/- 0.6 and absorption consistent with the galactic value in the direction of the source (1.9 × 10²² atom cm⁻²). An Fe K line with a equivalent width of 1.3 keV may be present in the spectrum. The unabsorbed 2-10 keV flux is 9 × 10⁻¹³ erg cm⁻²s⁻¹. The X-ray properties and lack of an obvious optical counterpart are consistent with a Be star companion at a distance of between approximately 6 and 12 kpc which implies a luminosity of (4-15)× 10³³ erg s⁻¹.