Possible Optical Detection of the Anomalous X-ray Pulsar CXOU J010043.1-721134

Abstract

Archival Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 observations of the Small Magellanic Cloud serendipitously reveal a possible counterpart to the Anomalous X-ray Pulsar CXOU J010043.1-721134. The candidate is faint, but its location and strange colours make it an interesting object. We estimate, that the probability of such a detection being due to a non-physical source is less than 1.5%. We have tried to confirm the identification with Gemini-South and Magellan, but the conditions were insufficiently favourable. If confirmed, the object will allow the first detailed studies of the optical and ultraviolet emission of magnetars.

arXiv comment9 pages LaTeX, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJL

References in corpus (7)

• The USNO-B Catalog
• WFPC2 Stellar Photometry with HSTphot
• Discovery of a New Transient Magnetar Candidate: XTE J1810-197
• Discovery of a Possible Anomalous X-ray Pulsar in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• X-ray Pulsars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The Broad-Band Spectrum and Infrared Variability of the Magnetar AXP 1E1048.1-5937
• Coherent Emission from Magnetars

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The McGill Magnetar Catalog
• A census of massive stars in NGC 346. Stellar parameters and rotational velocities
• Near-Infrared and Optical Limits for the Central X-ray Point Source in the Cassiopeia A Supernova Remnant
• Adaptive optics near-infrared observations of magnetars
• The infrared counterpart to the magnetar 1RXS J170849.0-400910
• Unsupervised Machine Learning for the Classification of Astrophysical X-ray Sources
• A search for the optical counterpart to the magnetar CXOU J010043.1-721134
• Long-term XMM-Newton view of magnetar CXOU J010043.1$-$721134: Comprehensive spectral and temporal results