Discovery of a transient magnetar: XTE J1810-197

Download
index.pdf
2004-07-01
Ibrahim, AI
Markwardt, CB
Swank, JH
Ransom, S
Roberts, M
Kaspi, V
Woods, PM
Safi-Harb, S
Balman, Şölen
Parke, WC
Kouveliotou, C
Hurley, K
Cline, T
Show full item record
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
172
views
0
downloads
We report the discovery of a new X-ray pulsar, XTE J1810 - 197, that was serendipitously discovered on 2003 July 15 by the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) while observing the soft gamma repeater SGR 1806 - 20. The pulsar has a 5.54 s spin period, a soft X-ray spectrum ( with a photon index of approximate to 4), and is detectable in earlier RXTE observations back to 2003 January but not before. These show that a transient outburst began between 2002 November 17 and 2003 January 23 and that the source's persistent X-ray flux has been declining since then. The pulsar exhibits a high spin-down rate (P) over dot approximate to 10(-11) s s(-1) with no evidence of Doppler shifts due to a binary companion. The rapid spin-down rate and slow spin period imply a supercritical characteristic magnetic field B similar or equal to 3 x 10(14) G and a young age tau less than or equal to 7600 yr. Follow-up Chandra observations provided an accurate position of the source. Within its error radius, the 1.5 m Russian-Turkish Optical Telescope found a limiting magnitude R-C = 21.5. All such properties are strikingly similar to those of anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma repeaters, providing strong evidence that the source is a new magnetar. However, archival ASCA and ROSAT observations found the source nearly 2 orders of magnitude fainter. This transient behavior and the observed long-term flux variability of the source in absence of an observed SGR-like burst activity make it the first confirmed transient magnetar and suggest that other neutron stars that share the properties of XTE J1810 - 197 during its inactive phase may be unidentified transient magnetars awaiting detection via a similar activity. This implies a larger population of magnetars than previously surmised and a possible evolutionary connection between magnetars and other neutron star families.
Space and Planetary Science, Astronomy and Astrophysics
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/57286
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Department of Physics, Article

Suggestions

Discovery of the orbit of the transient X-ray pulsar SAX J2103.5+4545
Baykal, Altan; Swank, J (IOP Publishing, 2000-12-01)
Using X-ray data from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), we carried out a pulse-timing analysis of the transient X-ray pulsar SAX J2103.5+4545. An outburst was detected by the All-Sky Monitor (ASM) in 1999 October 25 and reached a peak X-ray brightness of 27 mcrab on October 28. Between November 19 and December 27, the RXTE Proportional Counter Array (PCA) carried out pointed observations that provided us with pulse arrival times. These yield an eccentric orbit (e = 0.4 +/- 0.2) with an orbital period ...
RXTE and Swift Observations of SWIFT J0513.4-6547
Sahiner, S.; Serim, Muhammed Miraç; Baykal, Altan; İNAM, SITKI ÇAĞDAŞ (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2016-02-11)
We present timing and spectral analysis of Swift-XRT (X-ray Telescope) and RXTE-PCA (Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer-proportional Counter Array) observations of the transient Be/X-ray pulsar SWIFT J0513.4-6547 during its outburst in 2009 and its rebrightening in 2014. From 2009 observations, short-term spin-up rate of the source after the peak of the outburst is found to have about half of the value measured at the peak of the outburst by Coe et al. When the source is quiescent between 2009 and 2014, average sp...
Chandra observation of the shell of Nova Persei 1901 (GK Persei): Detection of localized nonthermal X-ray emission from a miniature supernova remnant
Balman, Şölen (IOP Publishing, 2005-07-10)
I present data on the shell of classical Nova Persei (1901) obtained by the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer S3 detector on board the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The X-ray nebula is affected mostly by the complex interstellar medium around the nova and has not developed a regular shell. The X-ray nebula is lumpy and asymmetric, with the bulk of the emission coming from the southwestern quadrant. The brightest X-ray emission is detected as an arc that covers the region from the west to the south of the centr...
Discovery of a soft spectral component and transient 22.7 second quasi-periodic oscillations of SAX J2103.5+4545
Inam, SC; Baykal, Altan; Swank, J; Stark, MJ (IOP Publishing, 2004-11-20)
XMM-Newton observed SAX J2103.5+4545 on 2003 January 6, while the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) was also monitoring the source. Using the RXTE Proportional Counter Array data set between 2002 December 3 and 2003 January 29, the spin period and average spin-up rate during the XMM-Newton observations were found to be 354.7940+/-0.0008 s and (7.4+/-0.9)x10(-13) Hz s(-1), respectively. In the power spectrum of the 0.9-11 keV EPIC PN light curve, we found quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) around 0.044 Hz (...
RXTE-PCA observations of XMMU J054134.7-682550
İNAM, SITKI ÇAĞDAŞ; Townsend, L. J.; McBride, V. A.; Baykal, Altan; Coe, M. J.; Corbet, R. H. D. (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2009-05-21)
We analysed Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer Proportional Counter Array observations of a recent outburst of the X-ray pulsar XMMU J054134.7-682550. We calculated the pulse frequency history of the source. We found no sign of a binary companion. The source spins up when the X-ray flux is higher, with a correlation between the spin-up rate and X-ray flux, which may be interpreted as a sign of an accretion disc. On the other hand, the source was found to have an almost constant spin frequency when the X-ray flux i...
Citation Formats
A. Ibrahim et al., “Discovery of a transient magnetar: XTE J1810-197,” ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, pp. 0–0, 2004, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/57286.
METU IIS - Integrated Information Service open@metu.edu.tr