X-ray and Radio Variabilities of PSR J2032+4127 near Periastron

C.-Y. Ng, W. C. G. Ho, E. V. Gotthelf, J. P. Halpern, Malcolm J. Coe , Benjamin Stappers, Andrew Lyne, K. S. Wood, M. Kerr

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    Abstract

    We present X-ray and radio monitoring observations of the gamma-ray binary PSR J2032+4127/MT91 213 during its periastron passage in late 2017. Dedicated Chandra, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR X-ray observations and VLA radio observations of this long orbit (50 years), 143 ms pulsar/Be star system clearly revealed flux and spectral variability during the passage. The X-ray spectrum hardened near periastron, with a signicant decrease in the power-law photon index from Γ ≈ 2 to 1.2 and evidence of an increased absorption column density. We identied a possible spectral break at a few keV in the spectrum that suggests synchrotron cooling. A coincident radio and X-ray are occurred one week after periastron, which is possibly the result of the pulsar wind interacting with the Be stellar disk and generating synchrotron radiation. However, a multi-wavelength comparison indicate that the X-ray and radio spectra cannot be simply connected by a single power-law component. Hence, the emission in these two energy bands must originate from different particle populations.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalThe Astrophysical Journal
    Early online date5 Aug 2019
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Aug 2019

    Keywords

    • stars: neutron
    • pulsars: individual (PSR J2032+4127)
    • stars: individual (MT91 213)
    • X-rays: binaries
    • X-rays: individual: PSR J2032+4127

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