Polarized x-rays from a magnetar

Taverna, Roberto; Turolla, Roberto; Muleri, Fabio; Heyl, Jeremy; Zane, Silvia; Baldini, Luca; González-Caniulef, Denis; Bachetti, Matteo; Rankin, John; Caiazzo, Ilaria; Di Lalla, Niccolò; Doroshenko, Victor; Errando, Manel; Gau, Ephraim; Kırmızıbayrak, Demet; Krawczynski, Henric; Negro, Michela; Ng, Mason; Omodei, Nicola; Possenti, Andrea; Tamagawa, Toru; Uchiyama, Keisuke; Weisskopf, Martin C.; Agudo, Ivan; Antonelli, L.A.; Baumgartner, Wayne H.; Bellazzini, Ronaldo; Bianchi, Stefano; Bongiorno, Stephen D.; Bonino, Raffaella; Brez, Alessandro; Bucciantini, Niccolò; Capitanio, Fiamma; Castellano, Simone; Cavazzuti, Elisabetta; Ciprini, Stefano; Costa, Enrico; De Rosa, Alessandra; Del Monte, Ettore; Di Gesu, Laura; Di Marco, Alessandro; Donnarumma, Immacolata; Dovčiak, Michal; Ehlert, Steven R.; Enoto, Teruaki; Evangelista, Yuri; Fabiani, Sergio; Ferrazzoli, Riccardo; Garcia, Javier A.; Gunji, Shuichi; Hayashida, Kiyoshi; Iwakiri, Wataru; Jorstad, Svetlana G.; Karas, Vladimir; Kitaguchi, Takao; Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J.; La Monaca, Fabio; Latronico, Luca; Liodakis, Ioannis; Maldera, Simone; Manfreda, Alberto; Marin, Frédéric; Marinucci, Andrea; Marscher, Alan P.; Marshall, Herman L.; Matt, Giorgio; Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki; Mizuno, Tsunefumi; Ng, Stephen C.-Y.; O'Dell, Stephen L.; Oppedisano, Chiara; Papitto, Alessandro; Pavlov, George G.; Peirson, Abel L.; Perri, Matteo; Pesce-Rollins, Melissa; Pilia, Maura; Poutanen, Juri; Puccetti, Simonetta; Ramsey, Brian D.; Ratheesh, Ajay; Romani, Roger W.; Sgrò, Carmelo; Slane, Patrick; Soffitta, Paolo; Spandre, Gloria; Tavecchio, Fabrizio; Tawara, Yuzuru; Tennant, Allyn F.; Thomas, Nicholas E.; Tombesi, Francesco; Trois, Alessio; Tsygankov, Sergey S.; Vink, Jacco; Wu, Kinwah; Xie, Fei

Polarized x-rays from a magnetar

Files

2205.08898.pdf(1.42 MB)

First author draft

Date

2022-11-11

DOI

10.1126/science.add0080

Authors

Taverna, Roberto

Turolla, Roberto

Muleri, Fabio

Heyl, Jeremy

Zane, Silvia

Baldini, Luca

González-Caniulef, Denis

Bachetti, Matteo

Rankin, John

Caiazzo, Ilaria

Version

First author draft

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/2144/46308

Citation

R. Taverna, R. Turolla, F. Muleri, J. Heyl, S. Zane, L. Baldini, D. González-Caniulef, M. Bachetti, J. Rankin, I. Caiazzo, N. Di Lalla, V. Doroshenko, M. Errando, E. Gau, D. Kırmızıbayrak, H. Krawczynski, M. Negro, M. Ng, N. Omodei, A. Possenti, T. Tamagawa, K. Uchiyama, M.C. Weisskopf, I. Agudo, L.A. Antonelli, W.H. Baumgartner, R. Bellazzini, S. Bianchi, S.D. Bongiorno, R. Bonino, A. Brez, N. Bucciantini, F. Capitanio, S. Castellano, E. Cavazzuti, S. Ciprini, E. Costa, A. De Rosa, E. Del Monte, L. Di Gesu, A. Di Marco, I. Donnarumma, M. Dovčiak, S.R. Ehlert, T. Enoto, Y. Evangelista, S. Fabiani, R. Ferrazzoli, J.A. Garcia, S. Gunji, K. Hayashida, W. Iwakiri, S.G. Jorstad, V. Karas, T. Kitaguchi, J.J. Kolodziejczak, F. La Monaca, L. Latronico, I. Liodakis, S. Maldera, A. Manfreda, F. Marin, A. Marinucci, A.P. Marscher, H.L. Marshall, G. Matt, I. Mitsuishi, T. Mizuno, S.C.-Y. Ng, S.L. O'Dell, C. Oppedisano, A. Papitto, G.G. Pavlov, A.L. Peirson, M. Perri, M. Pesce-Rollins, M. Pilia, J. Poutanen, S. Puccetti, B.D. Ramsey, A. Ratheesh, R.W. Romani, C. Sgrò, P. Slane, P. Soffitta, G. Spandre, F. Tavecchio, Y. Tawara, A.F. Tennant, N.E. Thomas, F. Tombesi, A. Trois, S.S. Tsygankov, J. Vink, K. Wu, F. Xie. 2022. "Polarized x-rays from a magnetar." Science, Volume 378, Issue 6620, pp.646-650. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.add0080

Abstract

Magnetars are neutron stars with ultrastrong magnetic fields, which can be observed in x-rays. Polarization measurements could provide information on their magnetic fields and surface properties. We observed polarized x-rays from the magnetar 4U 0142+61 using the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer and found a linear polarization degree of 13.5 ± 0.8% averaged over the 2- to 8-kilo-electron volt band. The polarization changes with energy: The degree is 15.0 ± 1.0% at 2 to 4 kilo-electron volts, drops below the instrumental sensitivity ~4 to 5 kilo-electron volts, and rises to 35.2 ± 7.1% at 5.5 to 8 kilo-electron volts. The polarization angle also changes by 90° at ~4 to 5 kilo-electron volts. These results are consistent with a model in which thermal radiation from the magnetar surface is reprocessed by scattering off charged particles in the magnetosphere.

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This preprint version is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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