Jets from strongly-magnetized accreting pulsars
Abstract
Jets are ubiquitous in the Universe, greatly impacting their surroundings and regulating accreting flows, but remain poorly understood. One approach to understanding jet formation, from the observational perspective, is to compare objects and circumstances wherein they can and cannot be launched. Since the first searches in the late seventies, jets were never seen in accreting neutron star binaries where the neutron star's magnetic field exceeds 109 gauss. This observational paradigm complemented theoretical work, predicting that jets could indeed not be formed by such strongly-magnetized neutron stars. In this talk, I will present our recent discoveries of jets launched by accreting X-ray pulsars with magnetic fields of 1012 G, disproving this paradigm. I will first discuss detailed, long-term radio and X-ray monitoring of the jet during the super-Eddington giant outburst of Swift J0243.6+6124. Secondly, I will introduce a follow-up ATCA radio survey of accreting X-ray pulsars, revealing three more jet-launching sources. I will discuss the direct implications of these jet detections on models for jet formation by accreting neutron stars, the effect of the neutron star properties on jet power, and finally the broader link with the growing population of Ultra-Luminous X-ray pulsars.
- Publication:
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AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division
- Pub Date:
- March 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019HEAD...1711201V