Discovery of a Spin-Down State Change in the LMC Pulsar B0540-69
Abstract
We report the discovery of a large, sudden, and persistent increase in the spin-down rate of B0540-69, a young pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud, using observations from the Swift and RXTE satellites. The relative increase in the spin-down rate of 36% is unprecedented for B0540-69. No accompanying change in the spin rate is seen, and no change is seen in the pulsed X-ray emission from B0540-69 following the change in the spin-down rate. Such large relative changes in the spin-down rate are seen in the recently discovered class of 'intermittent pulsars', and we compare the properties of B0540-69 to such pulsars. We consider possible changes in the magnetosphere of the pulsar that could cause such a large change in the spin-down rate.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1506.05765,
title = {Discovery of a Spin-Down State Change in the LMC Pulsar B0540-69},
author = {F. E. Marshall and L. Guillemot and A. K. Harding and P. Martin and D. A. Smith},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1506.05765},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters