Identification of CXOU J171405.7-381031 as a New Magnetar with XMM-Newton

TL;DR

This study identifies CXOU J171405.7-381031 as a new magnetar based on XMM-Newton and Chandra observations, revealing its young age, strong magnetic field, and potential link between magnetars and radio pulsars.

Contribution

The paper reports the discovery of a new magnetar with detailed measurements of its spin-down rate, age, and magnetic field, establishing its significance among known pulsars.

Findings

CXOU J171405.7-381031 is a young magnetar with a characteristic age of 950 years.

The magnetic field strength of the source is approximately 5×10^14 G.

The source's luminosity ratio suggests a connection between magnetars and radio pulsars.

Abstract

We have observed the 3.8 s pulsar CXOU J171405.7-381031 with XMM-Newton, and discovered the significant dP/dt of 6.40+/-0.14X10^-11 s/s from this source for the first time, with the aid of archival Chandra data. The characteristic age (950 yr), the magnetic field strength (5X10^14 G), and the spin-down luminosity (4.5X10^34 erg/s) derived from P and dP/dt lead us to conclude that CXOU J171405.7-381031 should be identified as a new magnetar. The obtained characteristic age indicates that CXOU J171405.7-381031 is youngest among all known anomalous X-ray pulsars, which is consistent with the age estimation from the thermal X-rays of the associated supernova remnant. The ratio between 2-10 keV luminosity and spin-down luminosity is almost unity, which implies that CXOU J171405.7-381031 is the key source to connect magnetars and traditional radio pulsars.