Discovery of Absorption Features in the X-Ray Spectrum of an Isolated Neutron Star
By D. Sanwal, G. Pavlov, V. Zavlin, M. University, Max-Planck-Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik. 2002
212 citations recorded by the source corpus.
We observed 1E 1207.4-5209, a neutron star in the center of the supernova remnant PKS 1209-51/52, with the ACIS detector aboard the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and detected two absorption features in the source spectrum. The features are centered near 0.7 and 1.4 keV; their equivalent widths are about 0.1 keV. We discuss various possible interpretations of the absorption features and exclude some of them. A likely interpretation is that the features are associated with atomic transitions of once-ionized helium in the neutron star atmosphere with a strong magnetic field. The first clear detection of absorption features in the spectrum of an isolated neutron star provides an opportunity to measure the mass-to-radius ratio and to constrain the equation of state of the superdense matter.
Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/125bd08a7cbb8ba20e30ced8dd6611bd87c1a0db
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Citations in the corpus
- Minimal Cooling of Neutron Stars: A New Paradigm (2004, background): “This is one of the very few isolated neutron stars that shows spectral lines in its spectrum (Sanwal et al. 2002), but the phase variation of these lines (Mereghetti et al. 2002) may indicate they are of magnotespheric origin.”
- Quark Deconfinement and Implications for the Radius and the Limiting Mass of Compact Stars (2004, background): “The two values of the stellar magnetic field inferred in the above quoted papers (Sanwal et al. 2002; Bignami et al. 2003) are in disagreement with each other and with the B field deduced from the 1E 1207.4 5209 timing parameters (P and Ṗ), which give B ¼ (2 3) ;1012 G within the rotating magnetic…”
- SPIN-DOWN MEASUREMENT OF PSR J1852+0040 IN KESTEVEN 79: CENTRAL COMPACT OBJECTS AS ANTI-MAGNETARS (2009, background): “1E 1207.4−5209 has strong absorption features at 0.7 and 1.4 keV (Sanwal et al. 2002; Mereghetti et al. 2002a) that can be attributed to the cyclotron fundamental energy Ec and its first harmonic in a field of ≈8 × 1010 G (Bignami et al. 2003), according to the relation Ec = 1.16(B/1011 G)/(1 + z)…”
- Magnetars in the Metagalaxy: An Origin for Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays in the Nearby Universe (2002, background): “Helium may be a more probable candidate, based on interpretation of neutron stars’ X-ray spectra (including line features in one case [Sanwal et al. 2002 and references therein], or perhaps O and Ne [Hailey & Mori 2002]).”
- Physics of strongly magnetized neutron stars (2006, background): “…by a blackbody (Drake et al (2002), Burwitz et al (2003)), absorption lines/features at E 0.2–2 keV have recently been detected from at least four sources, including 1E 1207.4-5209 (0.7 and 1.4 keV, possibly also 2.1, 2.8 keV; Sanwal et al (2002), DeLuca et al (2004), Mori et al (2005)), RX J1308.”
- Gamma-Ray Bursts from Delayed Collapse of Neutron Stars to Quark Matter Stars (2002, background): “…but rather different radii should exist: a) pure (metastable) HS, with radii in the range 12–20 km, as is the case of the compact star 1E 1207.4-5209, assuming M = 1.4M⊙ (Sanwal et al. 2002), and b) HyS or QS with radii in the range 6–8 km (Bombaci 1997; Li et al. 1999a,b; Drake et al. 2002).”
- Atmospheres and Spectra of Strongly Magnetized Neutron Stars. III. Partially Ionized Hydrogen Models (2001, background): “Chandra and XMM-Newton observations revealed absorption features at 0.7 and 1.4 keV in the spectra of the neutron star 1E 1207.4 5209 (Mereghetti et al. 2002b; Sanwal et al. 2002).”