A BeppoSAX observation of the massive X-ray binary 4U 1700-37

A 0.5-200 keV BeppoSAX spectrum of the nonpulsating high-mass X-ray binary 4U 1700-37 is presented. The spectrum is well characterized by the standard accreting pulsar model of an absorbed power-law with a photon index of 1.07+/-(0.02)(0.03), sharply modified by an exponential cutoff above 5.9 +/- 0.2 keV. The e-folding energy of the cutoff is 23.9 +/- 0.5 keV. A soft bremsstrahlung component with a temperature of 0.2 +/- 0.1 keV is also required, together with a narrow iron line at 6.5 keV. Both continuum components are absorbed by a column of (5.1 +/- 0.2) x 10(22) atom cm(-2). There is some evidence for the presence of a broad cyclotron absorption feature at similar to 37 keV, although we cannot exclude the possibility that this is due to an incorrect modeling of the continuum, or instrumental effects. The hypothesis that the compact object is a neutron star rather than a black hole seems most likely.