Relativistic force-free models of the thermal X-ray emission in millisecond pulsars observed by NICER

TL;DR

This study models the thermal X-ray emission of millisecond pulsars using general relativistic force-free simulations of their magnetospheres, successfully fitting NICER observations and revealing complex emission regions influenced by magnetic and gravitational effects.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive model combining magnetosphere simulations and ray tracing to accurately reproduce X-ray light curves and spectra of MSPs, highlighting non-standard emission regions.

Findings

Good fits to NICER data for four MSPs.

Identification of non-standard emission regions near the closed zone.

Emission regions influenced by spacelike four-currents and gravitational curvature.

Abstract

Several important properties of rotation-powered millisecond pulsars (MSPs), such as their mass-radius ratio, equation of state and magnetic field topology, can be inferred from precise observations and modelling of their X-ray light curves. In the present study, we model the thermal X-ray signals originated in MSPs, all the way from numerically solving the surrounding magnetospheres up to the ray tracing of the emitted photons and the final computation of their light curves and spectra. Our modelled X-ray signals are then compared against a set of very accurate NICER observations of four target pulsars: PSR J0437-4715, PSR J1231-1411, PSR J2124-3358 and PSR J0030+0451. We find very good simultaneous fits for the light curve and spectral distribution in all these pulsars. The magnetosphere is solved by performing general relativistic force-free simulations of a rotating neutron star (NS) endowed with a simple centered dipolar magnetic field, for many different stellar compactness and pulsar misalignments. From these solutions, we derive an emissivity map over the surface of the star, which is based on the electric currents in the magnetosphere. In particular, the emission regions (ERs) are determined in this model by spacelike four-currents that reach the NS. We show that this assumption, together with the inclusion of the gravitational curvature on the force-free simulations, lead to non-standard ERs facing the closed-zone of the pulsar, in addition to other ERs within the polar caps. The combined X-ray signals from these two kinds of ERs (both antipodal) allow to approximate the non-trivial interpulses found in all the target MSPs light curves.