A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Propeller effect in action in the ultraluminous accreting magnetar M82 X-2
Authors: Tsygankov SS, Mushtukov AA, Suleimanov VF, Poutanen J
Publisher: OXFORD UNIV PRESS
Publication year: 2016
Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Journal name in source: MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Journal acronym: MON NOT R ASTRON SOC
Volume: 457
Issue: 1
First page : 1101
Last page: 1106
Number of pages: 6
ISSN: 0035-8711
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw046
We present here the first convincing observational manifestation of a magnetar-like magnetic field in an accreting neutron star in binary system - the first pulsating ultraluminous X-ray source X-2 in the galaxy M82. Using the Chandra X-ray observatory data, we show that the source exhibit the bimodal distribution of the luminosity with two well-defined peaks separated by a factor of 40. This behaviour can be interpreted as the action of the 'propeller regime' of accretion. The onset of the propeller in a 1.37 s pulsar at luminosity of similar to 10(40) erg s(-1) implies the dipole component of the neutron star magnetic field of similar to 10(14) G.