Absorption Features in the X-ray Spectrum of an Ordinary Radio Pulsar

Abstract

The vast majority of known non-accreting neutron stars (NSs) are rotation-powered radio and/or gamma-ray pulsars. So far, their multiwavelength spectra have all been described satisfactorily by thermal and non-thermal continuum models, with no spectral lines. Spectral features have, however, been found in a handful of exotic NSs and thought to be a manifestation of their unique traits. Here we report the detection of absorption features in the X-ray spectrum of an ordinary rotation-powered radio pulsar, J1740+1000. Our findings bridge the gap between the spectra of pulsars and other, more exotic, NSs, suggesting that the features are more common in the NS spectra than they have been thought so far.

18 pages, 4 color figures, 1 Table

References in corpus (6)

• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• Physics of Strongly Magnetized Neutron Stars
• Modelling mid-Z element atmospheres for strongly-magnetized neutron stars
• Discovery of a 112 ms X-ray Pulsar in Puppis A: Further Evidence of Neutron Stars Weakly Magnetized at Birth
• X-ray Observations of Parsec-Scale Tails behind Two Middle-Aged Pulsars
• Pulsar radiation belts and transient radio emission

Cited by in corpus (28)

• A variable absorption feature in the X-ray spectrum of a magnetar
• The Correlation between Dispersion Measure and X-ray Column Density from Radio Pulsars
• Thermal luminosities of cooling neutron stars
• Atmospheres and radiating surfaces of neutron stars
• Modeling the X-rays from the Central Compact Object PSR J1852+0040 in Kesteven 79: Evidence for a Strongly Magnetized Neutron Star
• Constraining Superfluidity in Dense Matter from the Cooling of Isolated Neutron Stars
• X-ray Measurement of the Spin-Down of Calvera: a Radio- and Gamma-ray-Quiet Pulsar
• Spectral features in isolated neutron stars induced by inhomogeneous surface temperatures
• Flux-density spectral analysis for several pulsars and two newly-identified gigahertz-peaked spectra
• Cooling Theory Faced with Old Warm Neutron Stars: Role of Non-Equilibrium Processes with Proton and Neutron Gaps
• Evaluating the Evidence of Multipolar Surface Magnetic Field in PSR J0108$-$1431
• A new X-ray look into four old pulsars
• Possible phase-dependent absorption feature in the x-ray spectrum of the middle-aged PSR J0659+1414
• Thermal and non-thermal X-ray emission from the rotation-powered radio/$\gamma$-ray pulsar PSR J1740+1000
• Hitomi X-ray Observation of the Pulsar Wind Nebula G21.5$-$0.9
• Simultaneous X-ray and Radio Observations of Rotating Radio Transient J1819-1458
• Detailed X-ray spectroscopy of the magnetar 1E 2259+586
• XMM-Newton observations of a gamma-ray pulsar J0633+0632: pulsations, cooling and large-scale emission
• The $\gamma$-ray pulsar J0633+0632 in X-rays
• Constraints on physics of neutron stars from X-ray observations
• Prospect of Detecting X-Ray Halos Around Middle-Aged Pulsars with eROSITA
• Two-blackbody portraits of radiation from magnetized neutron stars
• Discovery of X-rays from the old and faint pulsar J1154--6250
• XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of the unidentified Fermi-LAT source 3FGL J1016.5-6034: A Young Pulsar with a Nebula?
• The middle-aged pulsar PSR J1741-2054 and its bow-shock nebula in far ultraviolet
• XMM-Newton observations of PSR J0554+3107: pulsing thermal emission from a cooling high-mass neutron star
• Thermal Evolution of Neutron Stars as a Probe of Physics beyond the Standard Model
• A Simple Model of Radiation from a Magnetized Neutron Star: Accreted Matter and Polar Hotspots