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arxiv: 2301.12919 · v1 · pith:KZ7B4DXXnew · submitted 2023-01-30 · 🌌 astro-ph.HE

A strong X-ray polarization signal from the magnetar 1RXS J170849.0-400910

Silvia Zane , Roberto Taverna , Denis Gonzalez Caniulef , Fabio Muleri , Roberto Turolla , Jeremy Heyl , Keisuke Uchiyama , Mason Ng
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Toru Tamagawa Ilaria Caiazzo Niccolo' Di Lalla Herman L. Marshall Matteo Bachetti Fabio La Monaca Ephraim Gau Alessandro Di Marco Luca Baldini Michela Negro Nicola Omodei John Rankin Giorgio Matt George G. Pavlov Takao Kitaguchi Henric Krawczynski Fabian Kislat Ruth Kelly Ivan Agudo Lucio A. Antonelli Wayne H. Baumgartner Ronaldo Bellazzini Stefano Bianchi Stephen D. Bongiorno Raffaella Bonino Alessandro Brez Niccolo' Bucciantini Fiamma Capitanio Simone Castellano Elisabetta Cavazzuti Chieng Ting Chen Stefano Ciprini Enrico Costa Alessandra De Rosa Ettore Del Monte Laura Di Gesu Immacolata Donnarumma Victor Doroshenko Michal Dovciak Steven R. Ehlert Teruaki Enoto Yuri Evangelista Sergio Fabiani Riccardo Ferrazzoli Javier A. Garcia Shuichi Gunji Kiyoshi Hayashida Wataru Iwakiri Svetlana G. Jorstad Philip Kaaret Vladimir Karas Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak Luca Latronico Ioannis Liodakis Simone Maldera Alberto Manfreda Frederic Marin Andrea Marinucci Alan P. Marscher Francesco Massaro Ikuyuki Mitsuishi Tsunefumi Mizuno C.Y. Ng Stephen L. O'Dell Chiara Oppedisano Alessandro Papitto Abel L. Peirson Matteo Perri Melissa Pesce Rollins Pierre Olivier Petrucci Maura Pilia Andrea Possenti Juri Poutanen Simonetta Puccetti Brian D. Ramsey Ajay Ratheesh Oliver J. Roberts Roger W. Romani Carmelo Sgro' Patrick Slane Paolo Soffitta Gloria Spandre Douglas A. Swartz Fabrizio Tavecchio Yuzuru Tawara Allyn F. Tennant Nicholas E. Thomas Francesco Tombesi Alessio Trois Sergey S. Tsygankov Jacco Vink Martin C. Weisskopf Kinwah Wu Fei Xie
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classification 🌌 astro-ph.HE
keywords polarizationenergyx-rayangleblackbodydataj170849magnetar
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Magnetars are the most strongly magnetized neutron stars, and one of the most promising targets for X-ray polarimetric measurements. We present here the first Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) observation of the magnetar 1RXS J170849.0-400910, jointly analysed with a new Swift observation and archival NICER data. The total (energy and phase integrated) emission in the 2-8 keV energy range is linerarly polarized, at a ~35% level. The phase-averaged polarization signal shows a marked increase with energy, ranging from ~20% at 2-3 keV up to ~80% at 6-8 keV, while the polarization angle remain constant. This indicates that radiation is mostly polarized in a single direction. The spectrum is well reproduced by a combination of either two thermal (blackbody) components or a blackbody and a power law. Both the polarization degree and angle also show a variation with the spin phase, and the former is almost anti-correlated with the source counts in the 2-8 keV and 2-4 keV bands. We discuss the possible implications and interpretations, based on a joint analysis of the spectral, polarization and pulsation properties of the source. A scenario in which the surface temperature is not homogeneous, with a hotter cap covered by a gaseous atmosphere and a warmer region in a condensed state, provides a satisfactory description of both the phase- and energy-dependent spectro-polarimetric data. The (comparatively) small size of the two emitting regions, required to explain the observed pulsations, does not allow to reach a robust conclusion about the presence of vacuum birefringence effects.

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