Discovery of extended X-ray emission around the highly magnetic RRAT J1819-1458

Abstract

We report on the discovery of extended X-ray emission around the high magnetic field Rotating Radio Transient J1819-1458. Using a 30ks Chandra ACIS-S observation, we found significant evidence for extended X-ray emission with a peculiar shape: a compact region out to 5.5", and more diffuse emission extending out to ~13" from the source. The most plausible interpretation is a nebula somehow powered by the pulsar, although the small number of counts prevents a conclusive answer on the nature of this emission. RRAT J1819-1458's spin-down energy loss rate (Edot~3x10^{32} erg/s) is much lower than that of other pulsars with observed spin-down powered pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), and implies a rather high X-ray efficiency of eta_{X} = L_(pwn; 0.5-8keV)/Edot~0.2 at converting spin-down power into the PWN X-ray emission. This suggests the need of an additional source of energy rather than the spin-down power alone, such as the high magnetic energy of this source. Furthermore, this Chandra observation allowed us to refine the positional accuracy of RRAT J1819-1458 to a radius of ~0.3", and confirms the presence of X-ray pulsations and the ~1keV absorption line, previously observed in the X-ray emission of this source.

5 pages, 3 figures; ApJ Letter accepted

References in corpus (7)

• Magnetar-like Emission from the Young Pulsar in Kes 75
• Pulsar Wind Nebulae in the Chandra Era
• The Distance of the SNR Kes 75 and PWN PSR J1846-0258 System
• Outburst of the 2 s Anomalous X-ray Pulsar 1E 1547.0-5408
• Discovery of Pulsations and a Possible Spectral Feature in the X-ray Emission from Rotating Radio Transient J1819-1458
• Exciting the Magnetosphere of the Magnetar CXOU J164710.2-455216 in Westerlund 1
• Deep Chandra Observation of the Pulsar Wind Nebula Powered by the Pulsar J1846-0258 in the Supernova Remnant Kes 75

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• On the long-term evolution of rotating radio transients
• Strong pulses detected from a rotating radio transient J1819$-$1458
• An unidentified Fermi source emitting radio bursts in the Galactic bulge
• Transient Radio Neutron Stars