A Magnetar-like Outburst from a High-B Radio Pulsar

Abstract

Radio pulsars are believed to have their emission powered by the loss of rotational kinetic energy. By contrast, magnetars show intense X-ray and gamma-ray radiation whose luminosity greatly exceeds that due to spin-down and is believed to be powered by intense internal magnetic fields. A basic prediction of this picture is that radio pulsars of high magnetic field should show magnetar-like emission. Here we report on a magnetar-like X-ray outburst from the radio pulsar PSR J1119-6127, heralded by two short bright X-ray bursts on 2016 July 27 and 28 (Kennea et al. 2016; Younes et al. 2016). Using Target-of-Opportunity data from the Swift X-ray Telescope and NuSTAR, we show that this pulsar's flux has brightened by a factor of > 160 in the 0.5-10 keV band, and its previously soft X-ray spectrum has undergone a strong hardening, with strong pulsations appearing for the first time above 2.5 keV, with phase-averaged emission detectable up to 25 keV. By comparing Swift-XRT and NuSTAR timing data with a pre-outburst ephemeris derived from Fermi Large Area Telescope data, we find that the source has contemporaneously undergone a large spin-up glitch of amplitude df/f = 5.74(8) E-6. The collection of phenomena observed thus far in this outburst strongly mirrors those in most magnetar outbursts and provides an unambiguous connection between the radio pulsar and magnetar populations.

arXiv comment7 pages, 3 figures, accepted to ApJL

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