CHIME/FRB/Pulsar discovery of a nearby long period radio transient with a timing glitch

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a nearby, long-period radio transient with a 421-second period, exhibiting a timing glitch and a strong magnetic field, likely representing a magnetar-like neutron star.

Contribution

It presents the first detection of a long-period radio transient with a glitch, magnetic field estimate, and local magneto-ionic environment, expanding the known neutron star population.

Findings

Discovered a 421 s long period radio transient with CHIME.

Detected a timing glitch consistent with neutron star behavior.

Estimated the source's magnetic field and proximity at about 170 pc.

Abstract

We present the discovery of a 421 s long period radio transient (LPT) using the CHIME telescope, CHIME J0630+25. The source is localized to RA=06:30:38.4$\pm1'$ Dec=25:26:24$\pm1'$ using voltage data acquired with the CHIME baseband system. A timing analysis shows that a model including a glitch is preferred over a non-glitch model with $dF/F=1.3\times10^{-6}$, consistent with other glitching neutron stars. The timing model suggests a surface magnetic field of $\sim1.5\times10^{15}$ G and a characteristic age of $\sim1.28\times10^{6}$ yrs. A separate line of evidence to support a strong local magnetic field is an abnormally high rotation measure of $RM=-347.8(6) \mathrm{rad\, m^{-2}}$ relative to CHIME J0630+25's modest dispersion measure of 22(1) pc cm$^{-2}$, implying a dense local magneto-ionic structure. As a result, we believe that CHIME J0630+25 is a magnetized, slowly spinning, isolated neutron star. This marks CHIME J0630+25 as the longest period neutron star and the second long period neutron star with an inferred magnetar-like field. Based on dispersion measure models and comparison with pulsars with distance measurements, CHIME J0630+25 is located at a nearby distance of 170$^{+310}_{-100}$ pc (95.4\%), making it an ideal candidate for follow-up studies.