Correlation between X-ray Lightcurve Shape and Radio Arrival Time in the Vela Pulsar
Abstract
We report the results of simultaneous observations of the Vela pulsar in X-rays and radio from the RXTE satellite and the Mount Pleasant Radio Observatory in Tasmania. We sought correlations between the Vela's X-ray emission and radio arrival times on a pulse by pulse basis. At a confidence level of 99.8% we have found significantly higher flux density in Vela's main X-ray peak during radio pulses that arrived early. This excess flux shifts to the 'trough' following the 2nd X-ray peak during radio pulses that arrive later. Our results suggest that the mechanism producing the radio pulses is intimately connected to the mechanism producing X-rays. Current models using resonant absorption of radio emission in the outer magnetosphere as a cause of the X-ray emission are explored as a possible explanation for the correlation.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0611450,
title = {Correlation between X-ray Lightcurve Shape and Radio Arrival Time in the Vela Pulsar},
author = {A. Lommen and J. Donovan and C. Gwinn and Z. Arzoumanian and A. Harding and M. Strickman and R. Dodson and P. McCulloch and D. Moffett},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0611450},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
6 pages, 5 figures, accepted by ApJ