DISCOVERY OF AN ENERGETIC 38.5 ms PULSAR POWERING THE GAMMA-RAY SOURCE IGR J18490-0000/HESS J1849-000

Journal Article · Thu Mar 10 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/729/2/L16· OSTI ID:21560456

Gotthelf, E V; Halpern, J P ^[1]; Terrier, R; Mattana, F ^[2]

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1. Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, 550 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
2. Astroparticule et Cosmologie, Universite Paris 7/CNRS/CEA, Batiment Condorcet, 75013 Paris (France)

We report the discovery of a 38.5 ms X-ray pulsar in observations of the soft {gamma}-ray source IGR J18490-0000 with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). PSR J1849-0001 is spinning down rapidly with period derivative 1.42 x 10{sup -14} s s{sup -1}, yielding a spin-down luminosity E-dot = 9.8 x 10{sup 36} erg s{sup -1}, characteristic age {tau}{sub c}{identical_to}P/2 P-dot = 42.9 kyr, and surface dipole magnetic field strength B{sub s} = 7.5 x 10{sup 11} G. Within the INTEGRAL/IBIS error circle lies a point-like XMM-Newton and Chandra X-ray source that shows evidence of faint extended emission consistent with a pulsar wind nebula (PWN). The XMM-Newton spectrum of the point source is well fitted by an absorbed power-law model with photon index {Gamma}{sub PSR} = 1.1 {+-} 0.2, N{sub H} = (4.3 {+-} 0.6) x 10{sup 22} cm{sup -2}, and F{sub PSR}(2-10 keV) = (3.8 {+-} 0.3) x 10{sup -12} erg cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}, while the spectral parameters of the extended emission are roughly {Gamma}{sub PWN} {approx} 2.1 and F{sub PWN}(2-10 keV) {approx} 9 x 10{sup -13} erg cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}. IGR J18490-0000 is also coincident with the compact TeV source HESS J1849-000. For an assumed distance of 7 kpc in the Scutum arm tangent region, the 0.35-10 TeV luminosity of HESS J1849-000 is 0.13% of the pulsar's spin-down energy, while the ratio F(0.35-10 TeV)/F{sub PWN}(2-10 keV) {approx} 2. These properties are consistent with leptonic models of TeV emission from PWNe, with PSR J1849-0001 in a stage of transition from a synchrotron X-ray source to an inverse Compton {gamma}-ray source.

• OSTI ID: 21560456
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 729, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/729/2/L16; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
EMISSION
GAMMA SOURCES
LUMINOSITY
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PULSARS
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
X-RAY SOURCES
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADIATION SOURCES