Polarized x-rays from a magnetar

Abstract

We report on the first detection of linearly polarized x-ray emission from an ultra-magnetized neutron star with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). The IXPE 35 observations of the anomalous x-ray pulsar 4U 0142+61 reveal a linear polarization degree of $(12\pm 1)\%$ throughout the IXPE 2--8 keV band. We detect a substantial variation of the polarization with energy: the degree is $(14\pm 1)\%$ at 2--4 keV and $(41\pm 7)\%$ at 5.5--8 keV, while it drops below the instrumental sensitivity around 4--5 keV, where the polarization angle swings by $\sim 90^{\circ }$. The IXPE observations give us completely new information about the properties of the neutron star surface and magnetosphere and lend further support to the presence of the quantum mechanical effect of vacuum birefringence.

arXiv comment32 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables

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Cited by in corpus (26)

• Handling Background in IXPE polarimetric data
• X-ray polarimetry and spectroscopy of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary GX 9+9: an in-depth study with IXPE and NuSTAR
• A strong X-ray polarization signal from the magnetar 1RXS J170849.0-400910
• IXPE Detection of Polarized X-rays from Magnetars and Photon Mode Conversion at QED Vacuum Resonance
• X-ray pulsar GRO J1008$-$57 as an orthogonal rotator
• Report on Progress in Physics: Observation of the Breit-Wheeler Process and Vacuum Birefringence in Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Exploring Nonlinear Electrodynamics Theories: Shadows of Regular Black Holes and Horizonless Ultra-Compact Objects
• Precession of magnetars: dynamical evolutions and modulations on polarized electromagnetic waves
• Premerger phenomena in neutron-star binary coalescences
• Vacuum Birefringence in a Supercritical Magnetic Field and a Subcritical Electric Field
• Polarization Signals from Axion-Photon Resonant Conversion in Neutron Star Magnetosphere
• X-ray Polarisation in Magnetar Atmospheres -- Effects of Mode Conversion
• Magnetar structure in non-linear electrodynamics with mixed poloidal-toroidal fields
• X-ray polarisation signatures in bombarded magnetar atmospheres
• Vacuum birefringence and the polarized X-ray emission from a radio magnetar
• Monte Carlo Simulations of Polarized Radiative Transfer in Neutron Star Atmospheres
• Photon polarization tensor at finite temperature and density in a magnetic field
• In search of the third dimension in Compton X-ray polarimeters
• Pulsed, Polarized X-ray Emission from Neutron Star Surfaces: the Effects of Vacuum Birefringence in the Magnetosphere
• 3+1 formulation of light modes in nonlinear electrodynamics
• Pulsed and Polarized X-ray Emission from Neutron Star Surfaces
• Energy Loss of Newborn Magnetars by Schwinger Process
• Instruments for Focal Plane X-Ray Polarimetry in the Next Decade
• Quantum refraction effects in pulsar radio emission
• Resonant Inverse Compton Scattering and Hard X-ray Emission in Magnetar Magnetospheres
• Nonlinear electrodynamics in magnetars: systematic effects on radius constraints and timing analysis