Magnetar-like activity from the central compact object in the SNR RCW103

Abstract

The 6.67 hr periodicity and the variable X-ray flux of the central compact object (CCO) at the center of the supernova remnant RCW 103, named 1E 161348–5055, have been always difficult to interpret within the standard scenarios of an isolated neutron star (NS) or a binary system. On 2016 June 22, the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on board Swift detected a magnetar-like short X-ray burst from the direction of 1E 161348–5055, also coincident with a large long-term X-ray outburst. Here, we report on Chandra, Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, and Swift (BAT and XRT) observations of this peculiar source during its 2016 outburst peak. In particular, we study the properties of this magnetar-like burst, we discover a hard X-ray tail in the CCO spectrum during outburst, and we study its long-term outburst history (from 1999 to 2016 July). We find the emission properties of 1E 161348–5055 consistent with it being a magnetar. However, in this scenario, the 6.67 hr periodicity can only be interpreted as the rotation period of this strongly magnetized NS, which therefore represents the slowest pulsar ever detected, by orders of magnitude. We briefly discuss the viable slow-down scenarios, favoring a picture involving a period of fall-back accretion after the supernova explosion, similarly to what is invoked (although in a different regime) to explain the "anti-magnetar" scenario for other CCOs.

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