Propeller effect in action in the ultraluminous accreting magnetar M82 X-2




Tsygankov SS, Mushtukov AA, Suleimanov VF, Poutanen J

PublisherOXFORD UNIV PRESS

2016

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

MON NOT R ASTRON SOC

457

1

1101

1106

6

0035-8711

DOIhttps://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.




Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 16:45