Spectral modelling of the high energy emission of the magnetar 4U 0142+614

Abstract

We present an empirical spectral modelling of the high energy emission of the anomalous X-ray pulsar 4U 0142+614, based on simultaneous Swift and INTEGRAL observations from X to gamma-ray energies. We adopted models contained in the XSPEC analysis package, as well as models based on recent theoretical studies, and restricted ourselves to those combinations of up to three components which produce a good fit while requiring the lowest number of free parameters. Only three models were found to fit satisfactorily the 0.5-250keV spectrum of 4U 0142+614: i) a ~0.4keV blackbody and two power-laws, ii) a resonant cyclotron scattering model plus a power-law and iii) two log-parabolic functions. We found that only the latter two models do not over-predict the infrared/optical emission observed simultaneously from this AXP, and only the log-parabolic functions can naturally account for the upper limits set by COMPTEL in the gamma-ray range. A possible interpretation of the two log-parabolae in terms of inverse Compton scattering of soft X-ray photons by very energetic particles is discussed.

5 pages, 2 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

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• Observations of the magnetars 4U 0142+61 and 1E 2259+586 with the MAGIC telescopes
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• Superdense beaming of axion dark matter in the vicinity of the light cylinder of pulsars
• Comptonization in ultra-strong magnetic fields: numerical solution of the radiative transfer problem