Revival of the magnetar PSR J1622-4950: observations with MeerKAT,   Parkes, XMM-Newton, Swift, Chandra, and NuSTAR

F. Camilo (1); P. Scholz (2); M. Serylak (1,3,4); S. Buchner (1); M.; Merryfield (2,5); V. M. Kaspi (6); R. F. Archibald (6,7); M. Bailes (8,9); A.; Jameson (8); W. van Straten (8,10); J. Sarkissian (11); J. E. Reynolds (12),; S. Johnston (12); G. Hobbs (12); T. D. Abbott (1); R. M. Adam (1); G. B.; Adams (1); T. Alberts (1); R. Andreas (1); K. M. B. Asad (1,3,13); D. E.; Baker (14); T. Baloyi (1); E. F. Bauermeister (1); T. Baxana (1); T. G. H.; Bennett (1); G. Bernardi (13,15); D. Booisen (1); R. S. Booth (16); D. H.; Botha (17); L. Boyana (1); L. R. S. Brederode (1); J. P. Burger (1); T.; Cheetham (1); J. Conradie (17); J. P. Conradie (17); D. B. Davidson (18); G.; de Bruin (1); B. de Swardt (1); C. de Villiers (1); D. I. L. de Villiers; (18); M. S. de Villiers (1); W. de Villiers (17); C. de Waal (1); M. A.; Dikgale (1); G. du Toit (17); L. J. du Toit (17); S. W. P. Esterhuyse (1); B.; Fanaroff (1); S. Fataar (1); A. R. Foley (1); G. Foster (19,20); D. Fourie; (1); R. Gamatham (1); T. Gatsi (1); R. Geschke (21); S. Goedhart (1); T. L.; Grobler (22); S. C. Gumede (1); M. J. Hlakola (1); A. Hokwana (1); D. H.; Hoorn (1); D. Horn (1); J. Horrell (1); B. Hugo (1,13); A. Isaacson (1); O.; Jacobs (17); J. P. Jansen van Rensburg (17); J. L. Jonas (13); B. Jordaan; (1,17); A. Joubert (1); F. Joubert (1); G. I. G. Jozsa (1,13,23); R. Julie; (1); C. C. Julius (1); F. Kapp (1); A. Karastergiou (3,13,19); F. Karels (1),; M. Kariseb (1); R. Karuppusamy (24); V. Kasper (1); E. C. Knox-Davies (17),; D. Koch (1); P. P. A. Kotze (1); A. Krebs (17); N. Kriek (1); H. Kriel (1),; T. Kusel (1); S. Lamoor (1); R. Lehmensiek (17); D. Liebenberg (1); I.; Liebenberg (17); R. T. Lord (1); B. Lunsky (1); N. Mabombo (1); T. Macdonald; (17); P. Macfarlane (1); K. Madisa (1); L. Mafhungo (1); L. G. Magnus (1); C.; Magozore (1); O. Mahgoub (1); J. P. L. Main (1); S. Makhathini (1,13); J. A.; Malan (1); P. Malgas (1); J. R. Manley (1); M. Manzini (1); L. Marais (17),; N. Marais (1); S. J. Marais (17); M. Maree (1); A. Martens (1); S. D.; Matshawule (3); N. Matthysen (17); T. Mauch (1); L. D. Mc Nally (17); B.; Merry (1); R. P. Millenaar (1); C. Mjikelo (17); N. Mkhabela (1); N. Mnyandu; (1); I. T. Moeng (1); O. J. Mokone (1); T. E. Monama (1); K. Montshiwa (1),; V. Moss (1); M. Mphego (1); W. New (1); B. Ngcebetsha (1,13); K. Ngoasheng; (1); H. Niehaus (1); P. Ntuli (1); A. Nzama (1); F. Obies (17); M. Obrocka; (1); M. T. Ockards (1); C. Olyn (1); N. Oozeer (1,25,26); A. J. Otto (1); Y.; Padayachee (1); S. Passmoor (1); A. A. Patel (1); S. Paula (1); A.; Peens-Hough (1); B. Pholoholo (1); P. Prozesky (1); S. Rakoma (1); A. J. T.; Ramaila (1); I. Rammala (1); Z. R. Ramudzuli (1); M. Rasivhaga (17); S.; Ratcliffe (1); H. C. Reader (18,27); R. Renil (1); L. Richter (1,13); A.; Robyntjies (1); D. Rosekrans (1); A. Rust (1); S. Salie (1); N. Sambu (1); C.; T. G. Schollar (1); L. Schwardt (1); S. Seranyane (1); G. Sethosa (17); C.; Sharpe (1); R. Siebrits (1); S. K. Sirothia (1,13); M. J. Slabber (1); O.; Smirnov (1,13); S. Smith (17); L. Sofeya (1); N. Songqumase (17); R. Spann; (1); B. Stappers (28); D. Steyn (17); T. J. Steyn (17); R. Strong (1); A.; Struthers (17); C. Stuart (17); P. Sunnylall (1); P. S. Swart (1); B.; Taljaard (1); C. Tasse (13,29); G. Taylor (1); I. P. Theron (17); V.; Thondikulam (1); K. Thorat (1,13); A. Tiplady (1); O. Toruvanda (1); J. van; Aardt (1); T. van Balla (1); L. van den Heever (1); A. van der Byl (1); C.; van der Merwe (1); P. van der Merwe (27); P. C. van Niekerk (17); R. van; Rooyen (1); J. P. van Staden (17); V. van Tonder (1); R. van Wyk (1); I. Wait; (17); A. L. Walker (1); B. Wallace (1); M. Welz (1); L. P. Williams (1); B.; Xaia (1); N. Young (1); S. Zitha (1,13) ((1) SKA South Africa; South African; Radio Astronomy Observatory; (2) NRC DRAO; (3) U Western Cape; (4) Nancay; Observatory; (5) U Victoria; (6) McGill U; (7) U Toronto; (8) Swinburne U; Technology; (9) OzGrav; (10) Auckland U Technology; (11) CSIRO Parkes; Observatory; (12) CSIRO ATNF; (13) Rhodes U; (14) Dirk Baker Consulting; (15); INAF Institute Radioastronomy; (16) Chalmers U Technology; (17) EMSS; Antennas; (18) Electrical; Electronic Engineering; Stellenbosch U; (19) U; Oxford; (20) UC Berkeley; (21) U Cape Town; (22) Mathematical Sciences,; Stellenbosch U; (23) Argelander Institute Astronomy; (24) MPIfR; (25); North-West U; (26) AIMS; (27) MESA Solutions; (28) U Manchester; (29) GEPI; Paris Observatory)

arXiv:1804.01933·astro-ph.HE·April 6, 2018

Revival of the magnetar PSR J1622-4950: observations with MeerKAT, Parkes, XMM-Newton, Swift, Chandra, and NuSTAR

F. Camilo (1), P. Scholz (2), M. Serylak (1,3,4), S. Buchner (1), M., Merryfield (2,5), V. M. Kaspi (6), R. F. Archibald (6,7), M. Bailes (8,9), A., Jameson (8), W. van Straten (8,10), J. Sarkissian (11), J. E. Reynolds (12),, S. Johnston (12), G. Hobbs (12), T. D. Abbott (1)

PDF

TL;DR

This paper reports the reactivation of magnetar PSR J1622-4950 with significant increases in radio and X-ray flux, enabling the first detection of X-ray pulsations and revealing new insights into its emission geometry and magnetospheric behavior.

Contribution

It presents the first detection of X-ray pulsations during reactivation and shows that radio emission originated from a different magnetospheric location than before.

Findings

01

Radio flux increased by 100x during reactivation.

02

X-ray flux increased by at least 800x and decayed exponentially.

03

Detected X-ray pulsations with a 5% pulsed fraction.

Abstract

New radio (MeerKAT and Parkes) and X-ray (XMM-Newton, Swift, Chandra, and NuSTAR) observations of PSR J1622-4950 indicate that the magnetar, in a quiescent state since at least early 2015, reactivated between 2017 March 19 and April 5. The radio flux density, while variable, is approximately 100x larger than during its dormant state. The X-ray flux one month after reactivation was at least 800x larger than during quiescence, and has been decaying exponentially on a 111+/-19 day timescale. This high-flux state, together with a radio-derived rotational ephemeris, enabled for the first time the detection of X-ray pulsations for this magnetar. At 5%, the 0.3-6 keV pulsed fraction is comparable to the smallest observed for magnetars. The overall pulsar geometry inferred from polarized radio emission appears to be broadly consistent with that determined 6-8 years earlier. However, rotating…

Peer Reviews

No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.

Videos

No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.