We have studied the variability of the black-widow type binary millisecond pulsar PSR J1311−3430 from optical to gamma-ray energies. We confirm evidence for orbital modulation in the weak off-pulse ≥200-MeV emission, with a peak at ϕB≈0.8, following pulsar inferior conjunction. The peak has a relatively hard spectrum, extending above ∼1\,GeV. XMM-Newton and Swift UV observations also show that this source's strong X-ray flaring activity is associated with optical/UV flares. With a duty cycle ∼7−19%, this flaring is quite prominent with an apparent power-law intensity distribution. Flares are present at all orbital phases, with a slight preference for ϕB=0.5−0.7. We explore possible connections of these variabilities with the intrabinary shock and magnetic activity on the low mass secondary.
@article{arxiv.1710.06097,
title = {High-Energy Variability of PSR J1311-3430},
author = {Hongjun An and Roger W. Romani and Tyrel Johnson and Matthew Kerr and Colin J. Clark},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.06097},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
10 pages, 3 tables, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ