Post-outburst Radio Observations of the High Magnetic Field Pulsar PSR J1119-6127
Abstract
We have carried out high-frequency radio observations of the high magnetic field pulsar PSR J1119-6127 following its recent X-ray outburst. While initial observations showed no evidence of significant radio emission, subsequent observations detected pulsed emission across a large frequency band. In this Letter, we report on the initial disappearance of the pulsed emission and its prompt reactivation and dramatic evolution over several months of observation. The periodic pulse profile at S-band (2.3 GHz) after reactivation exhibits a multi-component emission structure, while the simultaneous X-band (8.4 GHz) profile shows a single emission peak. Single pulses were also detected at S-band near the main emission peaks. We present measurements of the spectral index across a wide frequency bandwidth, which captures the underlying changes in the radio emission profile of the neutron star. The high-frequency radio detection, unusual emission profile, and observed variability suggest similarities with magnetars, which may independently link the high-energy outbursts to magnetar-like behavior.
Additional Information
© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. Received 2016 October 7; revised 2016 November 28; accepted 2016 December 8; published 2016 December 28. We thank V. Kaspi and R. Archibald for alerting us to the initial outburst and for providing an ephemeris for PSR J1119-6127. We also thank V. Kaspi for a careful reading of the manuscript and detailed comments. We acknowledge support from the DSN team for scheduling the observations. A. B. Pearlman acknowledges support by the Department of Defense (DoD) through the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG) Program and by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-1144469. J. Lippuner acknowledges support from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Graduate Fellowship program. A portion of this research was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a Research and Technology Development Grant and under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Government sponsorship is acknowledged.Attached Files
Published - Majid_2017_ApJL_834_L2.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 73208
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20170104-113953388
- National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship
- DGE-1144469
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- NASA Graduate Student Research Fellowship
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- Created
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2017-01-04Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-11Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- TAPIR, Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, Space Radiation Laboratory, Astronomy Department