Physical Properties of the AXP 4U 0142+61 from X-ray Spectral Analysis

TL;DR

This study analyzes X-ray data of 4U 0142+61 using a physical model, accurately constraining its magnetic field, temperature, and scattering properties, and demonstrating superior fit quality over traditional models.

Contribution

It applies a physical surface thermal emission and magnetospheric scattering model to X-ray data, providing tightly constrained system parameters and improved spectral fits.

Findings

Surface magnetic field strength B=(4.75 ± 0.02)×10^{14} G

Stable spectral parameters across observations

Better fit quality than blackbody+power-law models

Abstract

We analyze archival Chandra and XMM-Newton data of 4U 0142+61 within the context of the Surface Thermal Emission and Magnetospheric Scattering model. We show that 4U 0142+61 spectrum can be fit very well with this physical model that contains only four parameters. The system parameters can be tightly constrained from the fits, yielding a surface magnetic field strength of B=(4.75 \pm 0.02)x 10^{14} G, a surface temperature of kT = 0.309 \pm 0.001$ keV and a scattering optical depth of a few in the magnetosphere. These values do not vary between observations due to the stability of the source within the window of the observations. The detailed fits yield $\chi^2$ values that are statistically much better than the traditionally employed blackbody+power-law and two blackbody fits. The spectroscopically measured surface magnetic field strength is higher than, but within, the theoretical uncertainties of the value inferred from the dipole spindown formula.