Kavli Affiliate: Herman L. Marshall
| First 5 Authors: Roberto Taverna, Roberto Turolla, Fabio Muleri, Jeremy Heyl, Silvia Zane
| Summary:
We report on the first detection of linearly polarized x-ray emission from an
ultra-magnetized neutron star with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer
(IXPE). The IXPE 35 observations of the anomalous x-ray pulsar 4U 0142+61
reveal a linear polarization degree of $(12pm 1)%$ throughout the IXPE 2–8
keV band. We detect a substantial variation of the polarization with energy:
the degree is $(14pm 1)%$ at 2–4 keV and $(41pm 7)%$ at 5.5–8 keV, while
it drops below the instrumental sensitivity around 4–5 keV, where the
polarization angle swings by $sim 90^circ$. The IXPE observations give us
completely new information about the properties of the neutron star surface and
magnetosphere and lend further support to the presence of the quantum
mechanical effect of vacuum birefringence.
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