Radio pulsations from a neutron star within the gamma-ray binary LS I +61$^{circ}$ 303

Kavli Affiliate: Renxin Xu

| First 5 Authors: Shan-Shan Weng, Lei Qian, Bo-Jun Wang, D. F. Torres, A. Papitto

| Summary:

LS I +61$^{circ}$ 303 is one of the rare gamma-ray binaries, emitting most
of their luminosity in photons with energies beyond 100 MeV. The $sim$26.5 d
orbital period is clearly detected at many wavelengths. Additional aspects of
its multi-frequency behavior make it the most interesting example of the class.
The morphology of high-resolution radio images changes with orbital phase
displaying a cometary tail pointing away from the high-mass star. LS I
+61$^{circ}$ 303 also shows superorbital variability. A couple of energetic
($sim 10^{37}$ erg s$^{-1}$), short, magnetar-like bursts have been plausibly
ascribed to it. LS I +61$^{circ}$ 303’s phenomenology has been put under
theoretical scrutiny for decades, but the lack of certainty regarding the
nature of the compact object in the binary has prevented advancing our
understanding of the source. Here, using observations done with the
Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), we report on the
existence of transient radio pulsations from the direction of LS I
+61$^{circ}$ 303. We find a period $P=269.15508 pm 0.00016$ ms at a
significance of $> 20sigma$. This is the first evidence for pulsations from
this source at any frequency, and strongly argues for the existence of a
rotating neutron star in LS I +61$^{circ}$ 303.

| Search Query: ArXiv Query: search_query=au:”Renxin Xu”&id_list=&start=0&max_results=10

Read More

Leave a Reply