On the polar caps of the 3 Musketeers

Abstract

XMM-Newton observations of PSR B0656+14, PSR B1055-52 and Geminga have substantially increased the statistics available for these three isolated neutron stars, so apparently similar to deserve the nickname of "Three Musketeers" (Becker & Truemper, 1997). Here we shall take advantage of the EPIC statistics to perform phase resolved spectroscopy for all three objects. The phase-averaged spectrum of the three musketeers is best described by a three component model. This includes two blackbody components, a cooler one, possibly originating from the bulk of the star surface, and a hotter one, coming from a smaller portion of the star surface (a "hot spot"), plus a power law. The relative contributions of the three components are seen to vary as a function of phase, as the stars' rotation bring into view different emitting regions. The hot spots, which have very different apparent dimensions (in spite of the similarity of the three neutron stars polar cap radii) are responsible for the bulk of the phase variation. The amplitude of the observed phase modulation is also markedly different for the three sources. Another striking aspect of our phase-resolved phenomenology is the apparent lack of any common phase alignement between the observed modulation patterns for the two blackbody components. They are seen to vary in phase in the case of PSR B1055-52, but in anti-phase in the case of PSR B0656+14. These findings do not support standard and simplistic models of neutron star magnetic field configuration and surface temperature distribution.

arXiv comment42 pages, 17 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (16)

• The European Photon Imaging Camera on XMM-Newton: The MOS Cameras
• Neutron Star Structure and the Equation of State
• The 2-8 keV cosmic X-ray background spectrum as observed with XMM-Newton
• Emission Beam Geometry of Selected Pulsars Derived from Average Pulse Polarization Data
• Pulsar Polar Cap Heating and Surface Thermal X-Ray Emission II. Inverse Compton Radiation Pair Fronts
• The Parkes multibeam pulsar survey: III. Young pulsars & the discovery and timing of 200 pulsars
• Surface Temperature of a Magnetized Neutron Star and Interpretation of the ROSAT Data. I. Dipolar Fields
• Gamma Radiation from PSR B1055-52
• The distance and radius of the neutron star PSR B0656+14
• Revealing the X-ray emission processes of old rotation-powered pulsars: XMM-Newton Observations of PSR B0950+08,PSR B0823+26 and PSR J2043+2740
• Phase-resolved spectroscopy of Geminga shows rotating hot spot(s)
• Photon Propagation Around Compact Objects and the Inferred Properties of Thermally Emitting Neutron Stars
• Optical Pulse-Phased Photopolarimetry of PSR B0656+14
• Using the High Resolution X-ray Spectrum of PSR B0656+14 to Constrain the Chemical Composition of the Neutron Star Atmosphere
• A High-Energy Study of the Geminga Pulsar
• Pulsar X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Pulse Profiles: Constraint on Obliquity and Observer Angles

Cited by in corpus (120)

• The Second Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-ray Pulsars
• Physics of Strongly Magnetized Neutron Stars
• Unifying the observational diversity of isolated neutron stars via magneto-thermal evolution models
• Corona of Magnetars
• Constraining the Mass and Radius of Neutron Stars in Globular Clusters
• The glitch-induced identity changes of PSR J1119-6127
• Axion cooling of neutron stars
• The Correlation between Dispersion Measure and X-ray Column Density from Radio Pulsars
• Atmosphere Models of Magnetized Neutron Stars: QED Effects, Radiation Spectra, and Polarization Signals
• Surface Emission from Neutron Stars and Implications for the Physics of their Interiors
• Thermal luminosities of cooling neutron stars
• The gas-to-extinction ratio and the gas distribution in the Galaxy
• The impact of magnetic field on the thermal evolution of neutron stars
• Geminga's puzzling pulsar wind nebula
• Evidence for Heating of Neutron Stars by Magnetic Field Decay
• Gamma-ray Pulsar Revolution
• Pulsar Timing with the Parkes Radio Telescope for the Fermi Mission
• Discovery of Pulsations and a Possible Spectral Feature in the X-ray Emission from Rotating Radio Transient J1819-1458
• Constraining the Spin-down of the Nearby Isolated Neutron Star RX J2143.0+0654
• Constraining the Spin-down of the Nearby Isolated Neutron Star RX J0806.4-4123, and Implications for the Population of Nearby Neutron Stars
• Pulsar Pair Cascades in Magnetic Fields with Offset Polar Caps
• Non-Thermal X-ray Properties of Rotation Powered Pulsars and Their Wind Nebulae
• Axion cooling of neutron stars. II. Beyond hadronic axions
• A multiwavelength study on the high-energy behaviour of Fermi/LAT pulsars
• Fermi LAT observations of the Geminga pulsar
• Gamma-ray and Radio Properties of Six Pulsars Detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• X-ray and Radio Timing of the Pulsar in 3C 58
• Compact Stars for Undergraduates
• Timing Observations of Rotating Radio Transients
• Creation of magnetic spots at the neutron star surface
• Cooling of Dark-Matter Admixed Neutron Stars with density-dependent Equation of State
• Optical-uv spectrum and proper motion of the middle-aged pulsar b1055-52
• The bright spiky emission of pulsar B0656+14
• XMM-Newton Observations of Radio Pulsars B0834+06 and B0826-34 and Implications for Pulsar Inner Accelerator
• A Multi-wavelength study of the Pulsar PSR B1929+10 and its X-ray trail
• The main- interpulse interaction of PSR B1702-19
• Neutron stars - thermal emitters
• X-ray observations of RX J0822-4300 and Puppis-A
• Modeling the Surface X-ray Emission and Viewing Geometry of PSR J0821-4300 in Puppis A
• PSR J0357+3205: the tail of the turtle
• Absorption Features in the X-ray Spectrum of an Ordinary Radio Pulsar
• Phase resolved spectroscopy of the Vela pulsar with XMM-Newton
• Subaru optical observations of the two middle-aged pulsars PSR B0656+14 and Geminga
• Chandra Observations of the High-Magnetic-Field Radio Pulsar J1718-3718
• A broadband X-ray study of the Geminga pulsar with NuSTAR and XMM-Newton
• Radio-quiet and radio-loud pulsars: similar in Gamma-rays but different in X-rays
• X-ray pulsations from the radio-quiet gamma-ray pulsar in CTA 1
• A refined ephemeris and phase resolved X-ray spectroscopy of the Geminga pulsar
• HST/WFPC2 observations of the LMC pulsar PSR B0540-69
• Simultaneous X-ray and radio observations of the radio-mode switching pulsar PSR B1822-09
• Old but still warm: Far-UV detection of PSR B0950+08
• Measuring A Truncated Disk in Aquila X-1
• A Smoking Gun in the Carina Nebula
• Discovery of a faint X-ray counterpart and of a parsec-long X-ray tail for the middle-aged, gamma-ray only pulsar PSR J0357+3205
• The Young Pulsar J1357-6429 and Its Pulsar Wind Nebula
• New X-ray observations of the Geminga pulsar wind nebula
• Narrow absorption features in the co-added XMM-Newton RGS spectra of isolated Neutron Stars
• Spectral features in isolated neutron stars induced by inhomogeneous surface temperatures
• UV emission from young and middle-aged pulsars: Connecting X-rays with the optical
• Formation of a Partially-Screened Inner Acceleration Region in Radio Pulsars: Drifting Subpulses and Thermal X-Ray Emission from Polar Cap Surface
• The isolated neutron star candidate 2XMM J104608.7-594306
• Soft X-ray Polarization in Thermal Magnetar Emission
• Cooling of young neutron stars and dark gauge bosons
• The Next Geminga: Search for Radio and X-ray Pulsations from the Neutron Star Identified with 3EG J1835+5918
• The relative and absolute timing accuracy of the EPIC-pn camera on XMM-Newton, from X-ray pulsations of the Crab and other pulsars
• Cooling Theory Faced with Old Warm Neutron Stars: Role of Non-Equilibrium Processes with Proton and Neutron Gaps
• Multiwavelength spectroscopy of PSR B0656+14
• Deep Chandra observations of TeV binaries II: LS 5039
• Discovery of 59ms Pulsations from 1RXS J141256.0+792204 (Calvera)
• XMM-Newton reveals a candidate period for the spin of the "Magnificent Seven" neutron star RX J1605.3+3249
• Evaluating the Evidence of Multipolar Surface Magnetic Field in PSR J0108$-$1431
• A multi-wavelength investigation of candidate milli-second pulsars in unassociated $\gamma$-ray sources
• Chandra observations of the elusive pulsar wind nebula around PSR B0656+14
• A new X-ray look into four old pulsars
• Dense Matter in Neutron Stars with eXTP
• The Optical Spectrum of the Vela Pulsar
• The impact of surface temperature inhomogeneities on quiescent neutron star radius measurements
• On the puzzling high-energy pulsations of the energetic radio-quiet $\gamma$-ray pulsar J1813$-$1246
• X-ray and Rotational Luminosity Correlation and Magnetic Heating of the Radio Pulsars
• A Chandra search for the pulsar wind nebula around PSR B1055-52
• Agile Observations of the "Soft" Gamma-Ray Pulsar PSR B1509-58
• The Near-UV Pulse Profile and Spectrum of the Pulsar PSR B0656+14
• Possible phase-dependent absorption feature in the x-ray spectrum of the middle-aged PSR J0659+1414
• New XMM-Newton observation of the thermally emitting isolated neutron star 2XMM J104608.7-594306
• Thermal and non-thermal X-ray emission from the rotation-powered radio/$\gamma$-ray pulsar PSR J1740+1000
• XMM-Newton observation of the very old pulsar J0108-1431
• A joint NICER and XMM-Newton view of the "Magnificent" thermally emitting X-ray Isolated Neutron Star RX J1605.3+3249
• The Identification of the X-ray Counterpart to PSR J2021+4026
• Upper Limits on X-ray Emission from Two Rotating Radio Transients
• On the complex X-ray structure tracing the motion of Geminga
• The tale of the two tails of the oldish PSR J2055+2539
• X-ray pulsar radiation from polar cap heated by back-flow bombardment
• Fast cooling and internal heating in hyperon stars
• XMM-Newton X-ray Detection of the High Magnetic Field Radio Pulsar PSR B1916+14
• Joule heating in high magnetic field pulsars
• High-energy pulsations and phase-resolved spectroscopy of PSR J1741-2054
• The peculiar isolated neutron star in the Carina Nebula - Deep XMM-Newton and ESO-VLT observations of 2XMM J104608.7-594306
• Phase-resolved X-ray spectroscopy of PSR B0656+14 with SRG/eROSITA and XMM-Newton
• XMM-Newton detection and spectrum of the second fastest spinning pulsar PSR J0952-0607
• Instabilities nulls and sub-pulse drift in radio pulsars
• PSR J1840-1419: A very cool neutron star
• X-ray spectral analysis of the neutron star in SNR 1E 0102.2-7219
• Discovery of two promising isolated neutron star candidates in the SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey
• PSR B0656+14: the unified outlook from the infrared to X-rays
• Multiwavelength observations of PSR J2021+4026 across a mode change reveal a phase shift in its X-ray emission
• XMM-Newton Observations of Two Candidate Supernova Remnants
• Observational connection of non-thermal X-ray emission from pulsars with their timing properties and thermal emission
• Rapid X-ray variations of the Geminga pulsar wind nebula
• Two-blackbody portraits of radiation from magnetized neutron stars
• The power-law component of the X-ray emissions from pulsar wind nebulae and their pulsars
• Single pulse analysis of PSR B1133+16 at 8.35 GHz and carousel circulation time
• The radio and X-ray mode-switching pulsar PSR B0943+10
• Chandra observation of the relativistic binary J1906+0746
• Strongly pulsed thermal X-rays from a single extended hot spot on PSR J2021+4026
• Multi-wavelength emission region of gamma-ray emitting pulsars
• Consequences of Energetic Magnetar-Like Outbursts of Nearby Neutron Stars: ${}^{14}$C Events and the Cosmic Electron Spectrum
• X-ray and near-infrared observations of the middle-aged pulsar B1055-52, its multiwavelength spectrum, and proper motion
• Strong pulses detected from a rotating radio transient J1819$-$1458
• Thermal Evolution of Neutron Stars as a Probe of Physics beyond the Standard Model
• A Simple Model of Radiation from a Magnetized Neutron Star: Accreted Matter and Polar Hotspots