ON THE BRAKING INDEX OF THE UNUSUAL HIGH-B ROTATION-POWERED PULSAR PSR J1846–0258
- Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal QC, H3A 2T8 (Canada)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH (United Kingdom)
- Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 525 Davey Lab, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
PSR J1846–0258 is an object that straddles the boundary between magnetars and rotation powered pulsars. Though behaving for many years as a rotation-powered pulsar, in 2006, it exhibited distinctly magnetar-like behavior—emitting several short hard X-ray bursts, and a flux increase. Here we report on 7 years of post-outburst timing observations of PSR J1846–0258 using the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer and the Swift X-ray Telescope. We measure the braking index over the post-magnetar outburst period to be n = 2.19 ± 0.03. This represents a change of Δn = −0.46 ± 0.03 or a 14.5σ difference from the pre-outburst braking index of n = 2.65 ± 0.01, which itself was measured over a span of 6.5 years. A change to a pulsar braking index so large and long-lived is unprecedented and poses a significant challenge to models of pulsar spin-down.
- OSTI ID:
- 22525490
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 810, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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