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X-RAY PULSATIONS FROM THE RADIO-QUIET GAMMA-RAY PULSAR IN CTA 1

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal Letters
; ; ;  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. INAF-Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Via Bassini 15, I-20133 Milano (Italy)
  2. Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375-5352 (United States)
  3. Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
  4. Max-Planck Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik, 85748 Garching (Germany)
Prompted by the Fermi-LAT discovery of a radio-quiet gamma-ray pulsar inside the CTA 1 supernova remnant, we obtained a 130 ks XMM-Newton observation to assess the timing behavior of this pulsar. Exploiting both the unprecedented photon harvest and the contemporary Fermi-LAT timing measurements, a 4.7{sigma} single-peak pulsation is detected, making PSR J0007+7303 the second example, after Geminga, of a radio-quiet gamma-ray pulsar also seen to pulsate in X-rays. Phase-resolved spectroscopy shows that the off-pulse portion of the light curve is dominated by a power-law, non-thermal spectrum, while the X-ray peak emission appears to be mainly of thermal origin, probably from a polar cap heated by magnetospheric return currents, pointing to a hot spot varying throughout the pulsar rotation.
OSTI ID:
21454926
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 725; ISSN 2041-8205
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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