Timing behavior of the Magnetically Active Rotation-Powered Pulsar in the Supernova Remnant Kestevan 75

TL;DR

This paper reports a unique large glitch and recovery in the pulsar PSR J1846-0258 coinciding with magnetar-like activity, challenging existing understanding of pulsar timing behavior and suggesting a link between rotation-powered pulsars and magnetars.

Contribution

It presents the first observation of an unusually large glitch recovery in a rotation-powered pulsar, indicating magnetar-like activity and expanding knowledge of pulsar timing phenomena.

Findings

Large glitch with net decrease in pulse frequency

Unprecedented glitch recovery with Q=8.7±2.5

Increased timing noise during magnetar-like activity

Abstract

We report a large spin-up glitch in PSR J1846-0258 which coincided with the onset of magnetar-like behavior on 2006 May 31. We show that the pulsar experienced an unusually large glitch recovery, with a recovery fraction of Q=8.7+/- 2.5, resulting in a net decrease of the pulse frequency. Such a glitch recovery has never before been observed in a rotation-powered pulsar, however, similar but smaller glitch over-recovery has been recently reported in the magnetar AXP 4U~0142+61 and may have occurred in the SGR 1900+14. We also report a large increase in the timing noise of the source. We discuss the implications of the unusual timing behavior in PSR J1846-0258 on its status as the first identified magnetically active rotation-powered pulsar.