A long-period, violently-variable X-ray source in a young SNR
Abstract
Observations with the Newton X-ray Multimirror Mission (XMM) show a strong periodic modulation at 6.67+/-0.03 hours of the X-ray source at the centre of the 2,000-year-old supernova remnant RCW 103. No fast pulsations are visible. If genetically tied to the supernova remnant, the source could either be an X-ray binary, comprising a compact object and a low-mass star in an eccentric orbit, or an isolated neutron star. In the latter case, its age-period combination would point to a peculiar magnetar, dramatically slowed-down, possibly by a supernova debris disc. Both scenarios require non-standard assumptions on the formation and evolution of compact objects in supernova explosions.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0607173,
title = {A long-period, violently-variable X-ray source in a young SNR},
author = {A. De Luca and P. A. Caraveo and S. Mereghetti and A. Tiengo and G. F. Bignami},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0607173},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in Science. Published online via Science Express on 2006, July 6. 17 pages, 7 figures