Open AccessDetection of Pulsed X‐Ray Emission fromXMM‐NewtonObservations of PSR J0538+2817
Author(s) -
K. McGowan,
J. A. Kennea,
Silvia Zane,
F. A. Córdova,
M. Cropper,
C. Ho,
T. Sasseen,
W. T. Vestrand
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
the astrophysical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.376
H-Index - 489
eISSN - 1538-4357
pISSN - 0004-637X
DOI - 10.1086/375332
Subject(s) - physics , pulsar , astrophysics , radius , black body radiation , polar cap , dispersion (optics) , spectral line , pulse (music) , polar , radiation , astronomy , optics , detector , computer security , computer science
We report on the XMM-Newton observations of the 143 ms pulsar PSR J0538+2817.We present evidence for the first detections of pulsed X-rays from the sourceat a frequency which is consistent with the predicted radio frequency. Thepulse profile is broad and asymmetric, with a pulse fraction of 18 +/- 3%. Wefind that the spectrum of the source is well-fit with a blackbody withT^{infty} = (2.12^{+0.04}_{-0.03}) x 10^6 K and N_{H} = 2.5 x 10^21 cm^{-2}.The radius determined from the model fit of 1.68 +/- 0.05 km suggests that theemission is from a heated polar cap. A fit to the spectrum with an atmosphericmodel reduces the inferred temperature and hence increases the radius of theemitting region, however the pulsar distance determined from the fit is thensmaller than the dispersion distance.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ. Error in radius calculation corrected, discussion and conclusions remain unchange
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