Discovery of a 36 ks Phase Modulation in the Hard X-ray Pulses from the Magnetar 1E 1547.0$-$5408

Abstract

The Suzaku data of the highly variable magnetar 1E 1547.0$-$5408, obtained during the 2009 January activity, were reanalyzed. The 2.07 s pulsation of the 15--40 keV emission detected with the HXD was found to be phase modulated, with a period of $36.0_{-2.5}^{+4.5}$ ks and an amplitude of $0.52\pm 0.14$ s. The modulation waveform is suggested to be more square-wave like rather than sinusoidal. While the effect was confirmed with the 10--14 keV XIS data, the modulation amplitude decreased towards lower energies, becoming consistent with 0 below 4 keV. After the case of 4U 0142+61, this makes the 2nd example of this kind of behavior detected from magnetars. The effect can be interpreted as a manifestation of free precession of this magnetar, which is suggested to be oblately deformed under the presence of strong toroidal field of $\sim 10^{16}$ G.

18 pages, 12 figures, PASJ 10/2015 in press

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• A global model of the magnetorotational instability in protoneutron stars
• A new scenario for magnetar formation: Tayler-Spruit dynamo in a proto-neutron star spun up by fallback
• A NuSTAR confirmation of the 36 ks hard X-ray pulse-phase modulation in the magnetar 1E 1547.0$-$5408
• Discovery of 40.5 ks Hard X-ray Pulse-Phase Modulations from SGR 1900+14
• A NuSTAR study of the 55 ks hard X-ray pulse-phase modulation in the magnetar 4U 0142+61
• The radio shut-off, glitch, and X-ray burst in 1E 1547.0-5408 interpreted through magnetic reconfiguration
• Investigating magnetically-induced distortions of neutron stars through gamma-ray burst X-ray plateaus
• Spheroidal magnetic stars rotating in vacuum
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