Back to quiescence: post-outburst evolution of the pulsar J1119-6127 and its wind nebula

Abstract

We report on the analysis of a deep Chandra observation of the high-magnetic field pulsar (PSR) J1119-6127 and its compact pulsar wind nebula (PWN) taken in October 2019, three years after the source went into outburst. The 0.5-7 keV post-outburst (2019) spectrum of the pulsar is best described by a two-component blackbody plus powerlaw model with a temperature of 0.2\pm0.1 keV, photon index of 1.8\pm0.4 and X-ray luminosity of ~1.9e33 erg s^{-1}, consistent with its pre-burst quiescent phase. We find that the pulsar has gone back to quiescence. The compact nebula shows a jet-like morphology elongated in the north-south direction, similar to the pre-burst phase. The post-outburst PWN spectrum is best fit by an absorbed powerlaw with a photon index of 2.3\pm0.5 and flux of ~3.2e-14 erg cm^{-2} s^{-1} (0.5-7 keV). The PWN spectrum shows evidence of spectral softening in the post-outburst phase, with the pre-burst photon index of 1.2\pm0.4 changing to 2.3\pm0.5, and pre-burst luminosity of ~1.5e32 erg s^{-1} changing to 2.7e32 erg s^{-1} in the 0.5-7 keV band, suggesting magnetar outbursts can impact PWNe. The observed timescale for returning to quiescence, of just a few years, implies a rather fast cooling process and favors a scenario where J1119 is temporarily powered by magnetic energy following the magnetar outburst, in addition to its spin-down energy.

arXiv comment10 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (27)

• On the Absorption of X-rays in the Interstellar Medium
• Magnetars
• Electrodynamics of Magnetars: Implications for the Persistent X-ray Emission and Spindown of the Soft Gamma Repeaters and Anomalous X-ray Pulsars
• Sherpa: a Mission-Independent Data Analysis Application
• Untwisting magnetospheres of neutron stars
• Magnetar-like Emission from the Young Pulsar in Kes 75
• Discovery of Two High-Magnetic-Field Radio Pulsars
• Magnetar Spin-Down
• An expanding radio nebula produced by a giant flare from the magnetar SGR 1806-20
• A Dynamical Model for the Evolution of a Pulsar Wind Nebula inside a Non-Radiative Supernova Remnant
• The glitch-induced identity changes of PSR J1119-6127
• Systematic study of magnetar outbursts
• Time-dependent modeling of pulsar wind nebulae: Study on the impact of the diffusion-loss approximations
• A Magnetar-like Outburst from a High-B Radio Pulsar
• Magnetar-like activity from the central compact object in the SNR RCW103
• Chandra X-ray Detection of the High-Magnetic-Field Radio Pulsar PSR J1718-3718
• Unusual Pulsed X-ray Emission from the Young, High Magnetic Field Pulsar PSR J1119-6127
• Magnetar-like X-ray Bursts from a Rotation Powered Pulsar, PSR J1119-6127
• The wind nebula around magnetar Swift J1834.9-0846
• Chandra Detection of the X-ray counterpart of the High-magnetic field Radio Pulsar J1119-6127 in the Supernova Remnant G292.2-0.5
• Using Chandra to Unveil the High-Energy Properties of the High-Magnetic Field Radio Pulsar J1119-6127
• Peculiar Spin Frequency and Radio Profile Evolution of PSR J1119$-$6127 Following Magnetar-like X-ray Bursts
• Post-Outburst Radio Observations of the High Magnetic Field Pulsar PSR J1119-6127
• PSR J1119-6127 and its pulsar wind nebula following the magnetar-like bursts
• The 2016 outburst of PSR J1119-6127: cooling & a spin-down dominated glitch
• A multi-wavelength study of PSR J1119$-$6127 after 2016 outburst
• Investigation of the High-Energy Emission from the Magnetar-like Pulsar PSR J1119-6127 after the 2016 Outburst