A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Evidence for a Global-scale Multipolar Magnetic Field

By A. Bilous, A. Watts, A. Harding, T. E. Riley, Z. Arzoumanian, S. Bogdanov, K. Gendreau, P. Ray, S. Guillot, W. Ho and 1 more. Astrophysical Journal, 2019

133 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Recent modeling of Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer observations of thermal X-ray pulsations from the surface of the isolated millisecond pulsar PSR J0030+0451 suggests that the hot emitting regions on the pulsar’s surface are far from antipodal, which is at odds with the classical assumption that the magnetic field in the pulsar magnetosphere is predominantly that of a centered dipole. Here, we review these results and examine previous attempts to constrain the magnetospheric configuration of PSR J0030+0451. To the best of our knowledge, there is in fact no direct observational evidence that PSR J0030+0451’s magnetic field is a centered dipole. Developing models of physically motivated, non-canonical magnetic field configurations and the currents that they can support poses a challenging task. However, such models may have profound implications for many aspects of pulsar research, including pulsar braking, estimates of birth velocities, and interpretations of multi-wavelength magnetospheric emission.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Geophysics, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c075588bcee45f28aa6ee09b2e15971f5d7e0a61

How researchers see this paper

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. A. Watts
2. J. Lattimer
3. S. Guillot
4. A. Schwenk
5. K. Hebeler
6. T. E. Riley
7. T. Hinderer
8. S. K. Greif

In Geophysics

1. S. Guillot
2. A. Watts
3. A. Schwenk
4. K. Hebeler
5. J. Lattimer
6. T. E. Riley
7. S. Nissanke
8. W. Ho

In Oceanography

1. J. Lattimer
2. P. Ray
3. Z. Arzoumanian
4. T. Hinderer

Citations in the corpus

• An Updated Mass–Radius Analysis of the 2017–2018 NICER Data Set of PSR J0030+0451 (2023, background): “The shape and location of the hot emitting regions suggested the need for profound changes to the standard picture of the NSs ʼ s magnetic fi eld, as they were incompatible with a classical centered dipole ( Bilous et al. 2019; Chen et al. 2020; Kalapotharakos et al. 2021 ) .”
• A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Implications for the Dense Matter Equation of State (2019, background): “See for example Bilous et al. (2019) on the implications of some of these inferred “nuisance parameters” for our understanding of pulsar magnetospheres.”
• The Radius of the High-mass Pulsar PSR J0740+6620 with 3.6 yr of NICER Data (2024, background): “These results have also triggered studies on the magnetic field geometries and how non-antipodal they can be (see, e.g., Bilous et al. 2019; Chen et al. 2020; Kalapotharakos et al. 2021; Carrasco et al. 2023).”