Browsing by Author "Kaspi, V. M."

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    A HIGH BRAKING INDEX FOR A PULSAR
    (2016) Archibald, R. F.; Gotthelf, E. V.; Ferdman, R. D.; Kaspi, V. M.; Guillot, S.; Harrison, F. A.; Keane, E. F.; Pivovaroff, M. J.; Stern, D.; Tendulkar, S. P.; Tomsick, J. A.
    We present a phase-coherent timing solution for PSR. J1640-4631, a young 206 ms pulsar using X-ray timing observations taken with NuSTAR. Over this timing campaign, we have measured the braking index of PSR. J1640-4631 to be n = 3.15 +/- 0.03. Using a series of simulations, we argue that this unusually high braking index is not due to timing noise, but is intrinsic to the pulsar's spin-down. We cannot, however, rule out contamination due to an unseen glitch recovery, although the recovery timescale would have to be longer than most yet observed. If this braking index is eventually proven to be stable, it demonstrates that pulsar braking indices greater than three are allowed in nature; hence, other physical mechanisms such as mass or magnetic quadrupoles are important in pulsar spin-down. We also present a 3 sigma upper limit on the pulsed flux at 1.4 GHz of 0.018 mJy.
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    NuSTAR OBSERVATIONS OF MAGNETAR 1E 1048.1-5937
    (2016) Yang, C.; Archibald, R. F.; Vogel, J. K.; An, H.; Kaspi, V. M.; Guillot, S.; Beloborodov, A. M.; Pivovaroff, M.
    We report on simultaneous Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and XMM-Newton observations of the magnetar 1E. 1048.1-5937, along with Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) data for the same source. The NuSTAR data provide a clear detection of this magnetar's persistent emission up to 20 keV. We detect a previously unreported small secondary peak in the average pulse profile in the 7-10 keV band, which grows to an amplitude comparable to that of the main peak in the 10-20 keV band. We show using RXTE data that this secondary peak is likely transient. We find that the pulsed fraction increases with energy from a value of similar to 0.55 at similar to 2. keV to a value of similar to 0.75 near 8. keV but shows evidence of decreasing at higher energies. After filtering out multiple bright X-ray bursts during the observation, we find that the phase-averaged spectrum from combined NuSTAR and XMM data is well described by an absorbed double blackbody plus power-law model, with no evidence for the spectral turn-up near similar to 10. keV as has been seen in some other magnetars. Our data allow us to rule out a spectral turn-up similar to those seen in magnetars 4U 0142+61 and 1E 2259+586 of Delta Gamma greater than or similar to 2, where Delta Gamma is the difference between the soft-band and hard-band photon indexes. The lack of spectral turn-up is consistent with what has been observed from an active subset of magnetars given previously reported trends suggesting that the degree of spectral turn-up is correlated with spin-down rate and/or spin-inferred magnetic field.
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    The NuSTAR view of the non-thermal emission from PSR J0437-4715
    (OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2016) Guillot, S.; Kaspi, V. M.; Archibald, R. F.; Bachetti, M.; Flynn, C.; Jankowski, F.; Bailes, M.; Boggs, S.; Christensen, F. E.; Craig, W. W.; Hailey, C. A.; Harrison, F. A.; Stern, D.; Zhang, W. W.
    We present a hard X-ray Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) observation of PSR J0437-4715, the nearest millisecond pulsar. The known pulsations at the apparent pulse period similar to 5.76 ms are observed with a significance of 3.7 sigma, at energies up to 20 keV above which the NuSTAR background dominates. We measure a photon index Gamma = 1.50 +/- 0.25 (90 per cent confidence) for the power-law fit to the non-thermal emission. It had been shown that spectral models with two or three thermal components fit the XMM-Newton spectrum of PSR J0437-4715, depending on the slope of the power-law component, and the amount of absorption of soft X-rays. The new constraint on the high-energy emission provided by NuSTAR removes ambiguities regarding the thermal components of the emission below 3 keV. We performed a simultaneous spectral analysis of the XMM-Newton and NuSTAR data to confirm that three thermal components and a power law are required to fit the 0.3-20 keV emission of PSR J0437-4715. Adding a ROSAT-PSPC spectrum further confirmed this result and allowed us to better constrain the temperatures of the three thermal components. A phase-resolved analysis of the NuSTAR data revealed no significant change in the photon index of the high-energy emission. This NuSTAR observation provides further impetus for future observations with the NICER mission (Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer) whose sensitivity will provide much stricter constraints on the equation of state of nuclear matter by combining model fits to the pulsar's phase-folded light curve with the pulsar's well-defined mass and distance from radio timing observations.