Radio and X-ray Monitoring of the Recently Reactivated Magnetar PSR J1622-4950
Abstract
PSR J1622-4950 is one of four magnetars that has shown evidence of pulsed radio emission. We present radio and X-ray monitoring observations of this magnetar following its most recent radio reactivation in April 2017. The radio observations were carried out over a time span of roughly one year from May 2017 until August 2018, typically at simultaneous observing frequencies of 2.2 GHz and 8.3 GHz, using the Deep Space Network's 34-m diameter telescopes located near Canberra, Australia. Our radio measurements indicate that the magnetar exhibited significant changes in its pulse profiles, flux densities, spectral index, rate of bright single pulses, and rotational period after its radio reactivation. Short-term variability in its radio emission behavior was also observed. X-ray observations of the magnetar were performed in the 1-6 keV energy band between July 2017 and August 2018 with the NICER instrument on board the International Space Station (ISS). We searched for X-ray pulsations using contemporaneous radio ephemerides, but found no strong evidence of pulsed X-ray emission. This suggests that the magnetar has reentered an X-ray quiescence state, which we explain by the decay in the rate of soft X-ray thermal emission, inferred from fitting an absorbed blackbody model to the X-ray spectra. We will discuss the results from our multi-wavelength monitoring campaign and compare PSR J1622-4950's emission characteristics to other radio magnetars.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #233
- Pub Date:
- January 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AAS...23311004C