Multi-instrument X-ray monitoring of the January 2009 outburst from the recurrent magnetar candidate 1E 1547.0-5408

TL;DR

This study presents a comprehensive multi-instrument X-ray analysis of the active magnetar candidate 1E 1547.0-5408, revealing insights into its outburst behavior, emission mechanisms, and long-term flux variations over several years.

Contribution

The paper provides the first detailed timing and spectral analysis of multiple outbursts from 1E 1547.0-5408 using data from Chandra, INTEGRAL, XMM, and Swift, enhancing understanding of magnetar activity.

Findings

Identified three distinct flux levels: low, intermediate, and high.

Compared properties of two recent outbursts and active/quiescent states.

Documented long-term flux evolution since 1980.

Abstract

With two consecutive outbursts recorded in four months (October 2008 and January 2009), and a possible third outburst in 2007, 1E 1547.0-5408 is one of the most active transient anomalous X-ray pulsars known so far. Thanks to extensive X-ray observations, obtained both in the quiescent and active states, 1E 1547.0-5408 represents a very promising laboratory to get insights into the outburst properties and magnetar emission mechanisms. We performed a detailed timing and spectral analysis of four Chandra, three INTEGRAL, and one XMM observations collected over a two week interval after the outburst onset in January 2009. Several Swift pointings, covering a 1.5 year interval, were also analyzed in order to monitor the decay of the X-ray flux. We compare the characteristics of the two outbursts, as well as those of the active and quiescent states. We also discuss the long-term X-ray flux history of 1E 1547.0-5408 since its first detection in 1980, and show that the source displays three flux levels: low, intermediate and high.