SWIFT Observations of Two Outbursts from the Magnetar 4U0142+61
Abstract
4U 0142+61 is one of a small class of persistently bright magnetars. Here, we report on a monitoring campaign of 4U 0142+61 from 2011 July 26 to 2016 June 12 using the Swift X-ray Telescope, continuing a 16-year timing campaign with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. We show that 4U 0142+61 had two radiatively loud timing events, on 2011 July 29 and 2015 February 28, both with short soft γ-ray bursts, and a long-lived flux decay associated with each case. We show that the 2015 timing event resulted in a net spin-down of the pulsar that is due to overrecovery of a glitch. We compare this timing event to previous such events in other pulsars with high magnetic fields and discuss net spin-down glitches now seen in several young, high-B pulsars.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- January 2017
- DOI:
- 10.3847/1538-4357/834/2/163
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1611.09782
- Bibcode:
- 2017ApJ...834..163A
- Keywords:
-
- pulsars: general;
- stars: magnetars;
- stars: neutron;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 9 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to ApJ