Near Infrared Counterpart of 2E 1613.5-5053, the Central Source in Supernova Remnant RCW 103

TL;DR

This study reports the discovery of an infrared counterpart to the central source in supernova remnant RCW 103, using Hubble Space Telescope observations following a magnetar-like burst, providing insights into its nature.

Contribution

First detection of an infrared counterpart to 2E 1613.5-5053, constraining models of its emission and ruling out an accreting binary scenario.

Findings

Detected a new IR source at the Chandra position in 2016 observations.

Ruled out the presence of an accreting binary companion.

IR properties are consistent with magnetars and isolated neutron stars.

Abstract

On 2016 June 22, 2E 1613.5-5053, the puzzling central compact object in supernova remnant RCW 103, emitted a magnetar-like burst. Using Director's Discretionary Time, we observed 2E 1613.5-5053 with the Hubble Space Telescope (WFC3/IR) and we report here on the detection of a previously unseen infrared counterpart. In observations taken on 2016 July 4 and August 11, we detect a new source ($m_\mathrm{F110W} = 26.3$ AB mag and $m_\mathrm{F160W} = 24.2$ AB mag) at the Chandra position of 2E 1613.5-5053 which was not detected in HST/NICMOS images from 2002 August 15 and October 8 to a depth of 24.5 AB mag (F110W) and 25.5 AB mag (F160W). We show that these deep IR observations rule out the possibility of an accreting binary but mimic IR emission properties of magnetars and isolated neutron stars. The presence or absence of a low-mass fallback disk cannot be confirmed from our observations.