The Flare-dominated Accretion Mode of a Radio-bright Candidate Transitional Millisecond Pulsar

Li, Kwan Lok; Strader, Jay; Miller-Jones, J. C. A.; Heinke, C. O.; Chomiuk, Laura

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab8f28

Cited by 25 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 69 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…While we have no simultaneous X-ray and optical data for 4FGL J0540.0-7552 (the system was too faint to monitor at high cadence with the XMM OM), there were optical flares in the SOAR photometry of J0540B that occurred on similar quasi-periodic ∼ 40-45 min timescales as the X-ray flares in the XMM data. This is consistent with a model in which the bulk of the optical flares represent X-ray flares reprocessed by the accretion disk, as was hypothesized for 3FGL J0427.9-6704 (Li et al 2020), though other models are possible.…”

Section: Flare-mode Transitional Millisecond Pulsarssupporting

confidence: 90%

“…As mentioned in Li et al (2020), another published X-ray binary-source "B" in the globular cluster NGC 6652-has L X = 1 − 2 × 10 34 erg s −1 , and exhibits repeated X-ray and optical flares, with light curves broadly similar to those of 4FGL J0540.0-7552 and 3FGL J0427.9-6704 (Coomber et al 2011;Stacey et al 2012;Engel et al 2012). This source also shows broad Balmer emission in optical spectroscopy as well as radio continuum emission (Paduano et al 2021).…”

Section: Flare-mode Transitional Millisecond Pulsarsmentioning

confidence: 74%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Multiwavelength evidence for a new flare-mode transitional millisecond pulsar

Strader,

Swihart,

Urquhart

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We report the discovery of a new low-mass X-ray binary near the center of the unassociated Fermi GeV γ-ray source 4FGL J0540.0-7552. The source shows the persistent presence of an optical accretion disk and exhibits extreme X-ray and optical variability. It also has an X-ray spectrum well-fit by a hard power law with Γ = 1.8 and a high ratio of X-ray to γ-ray flux. Together, these properties are consistent with the classification of the binary as a transitional millisecond pulsar (tMSP) in the sub-luminous disk state. Uniquely among the candidate tMSPs, 4FGL J0540.0-7552 shows consistent optical, X-ray, and γ-ray evidence for having undergone a state change, becoming substantially brighter in the optical and X-rays and fainter in GeV γ-rays sometime in mid-2013. In its current sub-luminous disk state, and like one other candidate tMSP in the Galactic field, 4FGL J0540.0-7552 appears to always be in an X-ray "flare mode", indicating that this could be common phenomenology for tMSPs.

show abstract

Section: Flare-mode Transitional Millisecond Pulsarssupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Flare-mode Transitional Millisecond Pulsarsmentioning

confidence: 74%

Multiwavelength evidence for a new flare-mode transitional millisecond pulsar

Strader,

Swihart,

Urquhart

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our quasi-simultaneous radio upper limit of < 16.1 µJy is 10 28 erg s −1 at 5.0 GHz, which is not very constraining in the context of the known transitional millisecond pulsars or candidates, being comparable only to the detected radio emission in 3FGL J0427.9-6704 (Li et al 2020). If we assume the system stayed in a similar state for the longer period of 2011 May 22 to 2011 August 22, we can use the deeper, non-simultaneous radio data from Strader et al (2012b) to set a 3σ upper limit of < 6.3 µJy ( 4 × 10 27 erg s −1 at 5.0 GHz).…”

Section: Ac 211contrasting

confidence: 63%

“…For PSR J1023+0038, the radio emission likely comes from nonsteady synchrotron bubbles created near the interface between the inner disk and the neutron star (Bogdanov et al 2018). PSR J1023+0038 is not alone: other confirmed and candidate transitional systems show luminous radio emission in their sub-luminous disk states (Hill et al 2011;Jaodand 2019;Li et al 2020). It is not clear whether the same physical mechanism powers the radio emission in all of these systems, and a more "standard" propeller mechanism, producing a radio outflow, could instead be at play in a subset of them-or in GRS 1747-312.…”

Section: The Weirdos: X1850-087 and Grs 1747-312mentioning

confidence: 99%

The MAVERIC Survey: Variable Jet-Accretion Coupling in Luminous Accreting Neutron Stars in Galactic Globular Clusters

Panurach,

Strader,

Bahramian

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Accreting neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries show outflows-and sometimes jets-in the general manner of accreting black holes. However, the quantitative link between the accretion flow (traced by X-rays) and outflows and/or jets (traced by radio emission) is much less well-understood for neutron stars than for black holes, other than the general observation that neutron stars are fainter in the radio at a given X-ray luminosity. We use data from the deep MAVERIC radio continuum survey of Galactic globular clusters for a systematic radio and X-ray study of six luminous (L X > 10 34 erg s −1 ) persistent neutron star X-ray binaries in our survey, as well as two other transient systems also captured by our data. We find that these neutron star X-ray binaries show an even larger range in radio luminosity than previously observed. In particular, in quiescence at L X ∼ 3 × 10 34 erg s −1 , the confirmed neutron star binary GRS 1747-312 in Terzan 6 sits near the upper envelope of the black hole radio/X-ray correlation, and the persistently accreting neutron star systems AC 211 (in M15) and X1850-087 (in NGC 6712) show unusual radio variability and luminous radio emission. We interpret AC 211 as an obscured "Z source" that is accreting at close to the Eddington limit, while the properties of X1850-087 are difficult to explain, and motivate future coordinated radio and X-ray observations. Overall, our results show that neutron stars do not follow a single relation between inflow and outflow, and confirm that their accretion dynamics are more complex than for black holes.

show abstract

“…The tMSP flaring mode can also show strong, variable absorption (e.g. Li et al 2020), so could be an analogue with lower accretion efficiency.…”

Section: Comparison With Other Similar Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of thermonuclear (Type I) X-ray bursts in the X-ray binary Swift J1858.6–0814 observed with NICER and NuSTAR

Buisson

Altamirano

Bult

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Swift J1858.6–0814 is a recently discovered X-ray binary notable for extremely strong variability (by factors >100 in soft X-rays) in its discovery state. We present the detection of five thermonuclear (Type I) X-ray bursts from Swift J1858.6–0814, implying that the compact object in the system is a neutron star. Some of the bursts show photospheric radius expansion, so their peak flux can be used to estimate the distance to the system. The peak luminosity, and hence distance, can depend on several system parameters; for the most likely values, a high inclination and a helium atmosphere, $D=12.8_{-0.6}^{+0.8}$ kpc, although systematic effects allow a conservative range of 9-18 kpc. Before one burst, we detect a QPO at 9.6 ± 0.5 mHz with a fractional rms amplitude of 2.2 ± 0.2% (0.5 − 10 keV), likely due to marginally stable burning of helium; similar oscillations may be present before the other bursts but the light curves are not long enough to allow their detection. We also search for burst oscillations but do not detect any, with an upper limit in the best case of 15% fractional amplitude (over 1 − 8 keV). Finally, we discuss the implications of the neutron star accretor and this distance on other inferences which have been made about the system. In particular, we find that Swift J1858.6–0814 was observed at super-Eddington luminosities at least during bright flares during the variable stage of its outburst.

show abstract

The Flare-dominated Accretion Mode of a Radio-bright Candidate Transitional Millisecond Pulsar

Cited by 25 publications

References 69 publications

Multiwavelength evidence for a new flare-mode transitional millisecond pulsar

Multiwavelength evidence for a new flare-mode transitional millisecond pulsar

The MAVERIC Survey: Variable Jet-Accretion Coupling in Luminous Accreting Neutron Stars in Galactic Globular Clusters

Discovery of thermonuclear (Type I) X-ray bursts in the X-ray binary Swift J1858.6–0814 observed with NICER and NuSTAR

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About