The magnetic field evolution of ULX NuSTAR J095551+6940.8 in M82 - a legacy of accreting magnetar
Abstract
Ultraluminous X-ray sources are usually believed to be black holes with mass about 102-3 M⊙. However, the recent discovery of NuSTAR J095551+6940.8 in M82 by Bachetti et al. shows that it holds the spin period P = 1.37 s and period derivative \dot{P}≈ -2× 10^{-10} s s^{-1}, which provides a strong evidence that some ultraluminous X-ray sources could be neutron stars. We obtain that the source may be an evolved magnetar according to our simulation by employing the model of accretion induced the polar magnetic field decay and standard spin-up torque of an accreting neutron star. The results show that NuSTAR J095551+6940.8 is still in the spin-up process, and the polar magnetic field decays to about 4.5 × 1012 G after accreting ∼10-2.5 M⊙, while the strong magnetic field exists in the out-polar region, which could be responsible for the observed low field magnetar. The ultra luminosity of the source can be explained by the beaming effect and two kinds of accretion-radial random accretion and disc accretion. Since the birth rate of magnetars is about ten per cent of the normal neutron stars, we guess that several ultraluminous X-ray sources should share the similar properties to that of NuSTAR J095551+6940.8.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- September 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stw1041
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1510.08597
- Bibcode:
- 2016MNRAS.461....2P
- Keywords:
-
- accretion;
- accretion discs;
- binaries: close;
- stars: evolution;
- stars: magnetars;
- stars: magnetic field;
- X-rays: stars;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- 5 pages, 1 figure, accepted by MNRAS