PSR J1119-6127 and the X-ray Emission from High Magnetic Field Radio Pulsars
arXiv:astro-ph/0610522 · doi:10.1007/s10509-007-9305-2
Abstract
The existence of radio pulsars having inferred magnetic fields in the magnetar regime suggests that possible transition objects could be found in the radio pulsar population. The discovery of such an object would contribute greatly to our understanding of neutron star physics. Here we report on unusual X-ray emission detected from the radio pulsar PSR J1119-6127 using XMM-Newton. The pulsar has a characteristic age of 1,700 yrs and inferred surface dipole magnetic field strength of 4.1x10^13 G. In the 0.5-2.0 keV range, the emission shows a single, narrow pulse with an unusually high pulsed fraction of ~70%. No pulsations are detected in the 2.0-10.0 keV range, where we derive an upper limit at the 99% level for the pulsed fraction of 28%. The pulsed emission is well described by a thermal blackbody model with a high temperature of 2.4x10^6 K. While no unambiguous signature of magnetar-like emission has been found in high-magnetic-field radio pulsars, the X-ray characteristics of PSR J1119-6127 require alternate models from those of conventional thermal emission from neutron stars. In addition, PSR J1119-6127 is now the radio pulsar with the smallest characteristic age from which thermal X-ray emission has been detected.
arXiv comment6 pages, 2 figures. To be published in the proceedings of the conference "Isolated Neutron Stars: from the Interior to the Surface" (April 24-28, 2006, London, UK), eds. S. Zane, R. Turolla & D. Page
References in corpus (22)
- Transient pulsed radio emission from a magnetar
- Fourier Techniques for Very Long Astrophysical Time Series Analysis
- The Cooling of Compact Stars
- Discovery of Two High-Magnetic-Field Radio Pulsars
- The X-ray Spectrum of the Vela Pulsar Resolved with Chandra
- Chandra imaging of the X-ray nebula powered by pulsar B1509-58
- Pulsar Polar Cap Heating and Surface Thermal X-Ray Emission I. Curvature Radiation Pair Fronts
- Temperature distribution in magnetized neutron star crusts
- PSR J1847-0130: A Radio Pulsar with Magnetar Spin Characteristics
- Anisotropic thermal emission from magnetized neutron stars
- Chandra X-ray Imaging Spectroscopy of the Young Supernova Remnant Kesteven 75
- Chandra X-ray Detection of the High-Magnetic-Field Radio Pulsar PSR J1718-3718
- Discovery of a 105 ms X-ray Pulsar in Kesteven 79: On the Nature of Compact Central Objects in Supernova Remnants
- A radio supernova remnant associated with the young pulsar J1119-6127
- X-ray observations of the high magnetic field radio pulsar PSR J1814-1744
- Unusual Pulsed X-ray Emission from the Young, High Magnetic Field Pulsar PSR J1119-6127
- Neutron star cooling: Theoretical aspects and observational constraints
- Chandra Detection of the X-ray counterpart of the High-magnetic field Radio Pulsar J1119-6127 in the Supernova Remnant G292.2-0.5
- XMM-Newton spectral and timing observations of the millisecond pulsar PSR J0218+4232
- X-ray Observations of the New Pulsar--Supernova Remnant System PSR J1119-6127 and SNR G292.2-0.5
- A self-consistent model of isolated neutron stars: the case of the X-ray pulsar RX J0720.4-3125
- High-energy emission from pulsars in polar-cap models with CR-induced cascades