Discovery of Soft X-ray Pulsations from PSR J1231-1411 using NICER

Abstract

We report the discovery of soft X-ray pulsations from the nearby millisecond pulsar PSR J1231$-$1411 using NICER. The pulsed emission is characterized by a broad and asymmetric main pulse and a much fainter secondary interpulse, with a total pulsed count rate of 0.055 c s${}^{-1}$ in the 0.35-1.5 keV band. We analyzed Fermi LAT data to update the pulse timing model covering 10 years of data and used that model to coherently combine NICER data over a year of observations. Spectral modeling suggests that the flux is dominated by thermal emission from a hot spot (or spots) on the neutron star surface. The phase relationship between the X-ray pulse and the radio and $\gamma$ rays provides insight into the geometry of the system.

ApJ Letters, in press

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Cited by in corpus (15)

• Constraining the Neutron Star Mass-Radius Relation and Dense Matter Equation of State with NICER. I. The Millisecond Pulsar X-ray Data Set
• A NICER View of PSR J1231$-$1411: A Complex Case
• NICER X-ray Observations of Seven Nearby Rotation-Powered Millisecond Pulsars
• NICER Detection of Thermal X-ray Pulsations from the Massive Millisecond Pulsars PSR J0740+6620 and PSR J1614-2230
• Recycled pulsars with multipolar magnetospheres from accretion-induced magnetic burial
• Timing of Eight Binary Millisecond Pulsars Found with Arecibo in Fermi-LAT Unidentified Sources
• A Deep Chandra X-ray Observatory Study of the Millisecond Pulsar Population in the Globular Cluster Terzan 5
• Spectral characterization of the non-thermal X-ray emission of gamma-ray pulsars
• Discovery, Timing, and Multiwavelength Observations of the Black Widow Millisecond Pulsar PSR J1555-2908
• PSR J1231-1411 revisited: Pulse Profile Analysis of X-ray Observation
• The Emission Physics of Millisecond Pulsars
• Relativistic force-free models of the thermal X-ray emission in millisecond pulsars observed by NICER
• Phase resolved spectrum of the Crab pulsar from NICER
• Shapiro Delay Measurements from Fifteen Years of PSR J1231$-$1411 Radio Observations
• Bayesian Modeling of NICER Cometary X-ray Spectra: A Legacy Survey of Solar-Wind Charge Exchange