Accretion-powered Pulsations in an Apparently Quiescent Neutron Star Binary
Abstract
Accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars (AMXPs) are an important subset of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) in which coherent X-ray pulsations can be observed during occasional, bright outbursts (X-ray luminosity ). These pulsations show that matter is being channeled onto the neutron star's magnetic poles. However, such sources spend most of their time in a low-luminosity, quiescent state (L_X ≲ 10^(34) erg s^(-1)), where the nature of the accretion flow onto the neutron star (if any) is not well understood. Here we report that the millisecond pulsar/LMXB transition object PSR J1023+0038 intermittently shows coherent X-ray pulsations at luminosities nearly 100 times fainter than observed in any other AMXP. We conclude that in spite of its low luminosity, PSR J1023+0038 experiences episodes of channeled accretion, a discovery that challenges existing models for accretion onto magnetized neutron stars.
Additional Information
© 2015 The American Astronomical Society. Received 3 December 2014; accepted for publication 7 May 2015. Published 1 July 2015. The results presented were based on observations obtained with XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and NASA. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. A.M.A. was funded for this work through an NWO Vrije Competitie grant to J.W.T.H.A.P. acknowledges support from an NWO Vidi fellowship. J.W.T.H. and C.B. further acknowledge funding from an NWO Vidi fellowship and ERC Starting Grant "DRAGNET" (337062; PI J.W.T.H.). A.T.D. acknowledges support from an NWO Veni Fellowship. V.M.K. acknowledges support from an NSERC Discovery Grant and Accelerator Supplement, the FQRNT Centre de Recherche Astrophysique du Québec, an R. Howard Webster Foundation Fellowship from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), the Canada Research Chairs Program and the Lorne Trottier Chair in Astrophysics and Cosmology. Facilities: XMM VLA.Attached Files
Published - 0004-637X_807_1_62.pdf
Submitted - 1412.1306v2.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 59806
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20150821-093813803
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)
- 337062
- European Research Council (ERC)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT)
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR)
- Canada Research Chairs Program
- Lorne Trottier Chair in Astrophysics and Cosmology
- Created
-
2015-08-21Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Space Radiation Laboratory
- Other Numbering System Name
- Space Radiation Laboratory
- Other Numbering System Identifier
- 2015