English

GCRT J1745-3009 as a Transient White Dwarf Pulsar

Astrophysics 2009-11-13 v2

Abstract

A transient radio source in the direction of the Galactic Center, GCRT J1745-3009, exhibited 5 peculiar consecutive outbursts at 0.33 GHz with a period of 77.13 minutes and a duration of ~10 minutes for each outburst. It has been claimed to be the prototype of a hitherto unknown class of transient radio sources. We interpret it as a transient white dwarf pulsar with a period of 77.13 minutes. The ~10-minute flaring duration corresponds to the epoch when the radio beam sweeps our line of sight. The bursting epoch corresponds to the episodes when stronger sunspot-like magnetic fields emerge into the white dwarf polar cap region during which the pair production condition is satisfied and the white dwarf behaves like a radio pulsar. It switches off as the pair production condition breaks down.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0508213,
  title  = {GCRT J1745-3009 as a Transient White Dwarf Pulsar},
  author = {Bing Zhang and Janusz Gil},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0508213},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

minor changes, ApJL, in press