A STRONGLY MAGNETIZED PULSAR WITHIN THE GRASP OF THE MILKY WAY'S SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE

Journal Article · Tue Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/775/2/L34· OSTI ID:22215444

Rea, N.; Torres, D. F.; Papitto, A.; Camero-Arranz, A. ^[1]; Esposito, P.; Mereghetti, S.; Tiengo, A. ^[2]; Pons, J. A.; Viganò, D. ^[3]; Turolla, R. ^[4]; Israel, G. L.; Stella, L. ^[5]; Possenti, A.; Burgay, M. ^[6]; Perna, R. ^[7]; Ponti, G. ^[8]; Baganoff, F. K. ^[9]; Haggard, D. ^[10]; Zane, S. ^[11]; Minter, A. ^[12] ; others, and

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1. Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC), Faculty of Science, Campus UAB, Torre C5-parell, 2a planta, E-08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona) (Spain)
2. INAF-IASF, Milano, via E. Bassini 15, I-20133 Milano (Italy)
3. Departament de Fisica Aplicada, Universitat d'Alacant, Ap. Correus 99, E-03080 Alacant (Spain)
4. Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Padova, via F. Marzolo 8, I-35131 Padova (Italy)
5. INAF-OAR, via Frascati 33, I-00040 Monteporzio Catone (Italy)
6. INAF-OAC, loc. Poggio dei Pini, strada 54, I-09012 Capoterra (Italy)
7. JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0440 (United States)
8. Max Planck Institute fur Extraterrestriche Physik, D-85748 Garching (Germany)
9. Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)
10. Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics, Physics and Astronomy Department, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States)
11. MSSL-UCL, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT (United Kingdom)
12. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, WV 24944 (United States)

The center of our Galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole, Sagittarius (Sgr) A*. Young, massive stars within 0.5 pc of Sgr A* are evidence of an episode of intense star formation near the black hole a few million years ago, which might have left behind a young neutron star traveling deep into Sgr A*'s gravitational potential. On 2013 April 25, a short X-ray burst was observed from the direction of the Galactic center. With a series of observations with the Chandra and the Swift satellites, we pinpoint the associated magnetar at an angular distance of 2.4 ± 0.3 arcsec from Sgr A*, and refine the source spin period and its derivative (P = 3.7635537(2) s and P-dot = 6.61(4)×10{sup -12} s s{sup –1}), confirmed by quasi simultaneous radio observations performed with the Green Bank Telescope and Parkes Radio Telescope, which also constrain a dispersion measure of DM = 1750 ± 50 pc cm{sup –3}, the highest ever observed for a radio pulsar. We have found that this X-ray source is a young magnetar at ≈0.07-2 pc from Sgr A*. Simulations of its possible motion around Sgr A* show that it is likely (∼90% probability) in a bound orbit around the black hole. The radiation front produced by the past activity from the magnetar passing through the molecular clouds surrounding the Galactic center region might be responsible for a large fraction of the light echoes observed in the Fe fluorescence features.

• OSTI ID: 22215444
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 775, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
BLACK HOLES
FLUORESCENCE
MILKY WAY
NEUTRON STARS
ORBITS
PULSARS
RADIO TELESCOPES
X RADIATION
X-RAY SOURCES