Discovery of a possible anomalous X-ray pulsar in the small magellanic cloud

R. C. Lamb; D. W. Fox; D. J. Macomb; T. A. Prince

doi:10.1086/342352

Discovery of a possible anomalous X-ray pulsar in the small magellanic cloud

R. C. Lamb, D. W. Fox, D. J. Macomb, T. A. Prince

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Abstract

We report the serendipitous detection of a previously unreported pulsar from the direction of the Small Magellanic Cloud using data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Because of its luminosity (∼1.5 × 10³⁵ ergs s^-1), its near lack of variability for more than 20 yr, and its very soft spectrum, we propose that it is an anomalous X-ray pulsar (AXP). Data from the ROSAT PSPC in conjunction with the Chandra data give a period, P, of 5.44 s and a spin-down time, P/Ṗ, of 11 kyr. If this is a correct identification, it will be the first extragalactic AXP and the fastest yet discovered.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	L29-L32
Journal	Astrophysical Journal
Volume	574
Issue number	1 II
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1086/342352
State	Published - Jul 20 2002

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science

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title = "Discovery of a possible anomalous X-ray pulsar in the small magellanic cloud",

abstract = "We report the serendipitous detection of a previously unreported pulsar from the direction of the Small Magellanic Cloud using data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Because of its luminosity (∼1.5 × 1035 ergs s-1), its near lack of variability for more than 20 yr, and its very soft spectrum, we propose that it is an anomalous X-ray pulsar (AXP). Data from the ROSAT PSPC in conjunction with the Chandra data give a period, P, of 5.44 s and a spin-down time, P/Ṗ, of 11 kyr. If this is a correct identification, it will be the first extragalactic AXP and the fastest yet discovered.",

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T1 - Discovery of a possible anomalous X-ray pulsar in the small magellanic cloud

AU - Lamb, R. C.

AU - Fox, D. W.

AU - Macomb, D. J.

AU - Prince, T. A.

PY - 2002/7/20

Y1 - 2002/7/20

N2 - We report the serendipitous detection of a previously unreported pulsar from the direction of the Small Magellanic Cloud using data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Because of its luminosity (∼1.5 × 1035 ergs s-1), its near lack of variability for more than 20 yr, and its very soft spectrum, we propose that it is an anomalous X-ray pulsar (AXP). Data from the ROSAT PSPC in conjunction with the Chandra data give a period, P, of 5.44 s and a spin-down time, P/Ṗ, of 11 kyr. If this is a correct identification, it will be the first extragalactic AXP and the fastest yet discovered.

AB - We report the serendipitous detection of a previously unreported pulsar from the direction of the Small Magellanic Cloud using data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Because of its luminosity (∼1.5 × 1035 ergs s-1), its near lack of variability for more than 20 yr, and its very soft spectrum, we propose that it is an anomalous X-ray pulsar (AXP). Data from the ROSAT PSPC in conjunction with the Chandra data give a period, P, of 5.44 s and a spin-down time, P/Ṗ, of 11 kyr. If this is a correct identification, it will be the first extragalactic AXP and the fastest yet discovered.

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Discovery of a possible anomalous X-ray pulsar in the small magellanic cloud

Abstract

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