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Detection of Pulsed X-ray Emission from The Fastest Millisecond Pulsar PSR B1937+21 with ASCA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Motoki Takahashi
Affiliation:
Department of Physics Yamagata University, Kojirakawa, Yamagata 990-8560, Japan
Shinpei Shibata
Affiliation:
Department of Physics Yamagata University, Kojirakawa, Yamagata 990-8560, Japan
Ken’ichi Torii
Affiliation:
NASDA TKSCSURP, 2-1-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8505, Japan
Yoshitaka Saito
Affiliation:
The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229, Japan
Nobuyuki Kawai
Affiliation:
NASDA TKSCSURP, 2-1-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8505, Japan The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Wako, Saitama 351-01, Japan
Masaharu Hirayama
Affiliation:
Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Tadayasu Dotani
Affiliation:
The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229, Japan
Shuichi Gunji
Affiliation:
Department of Physics Yamagata University, Kojirakawa, Yamagata 990-8560, Japan
Hirohisa Sakurai
Affiliation:
Department of Physics Yamagata University, Kojirakawa, Yamagata 990-8560, Japan

Abstract

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We report the first detection of the pulsed X-ray emission from the fastest millisecond pulsar known PSR B1937+21 (P =1.558msec) with ASCA. The pulsar is detected as a point source above ∼ 1.7keV, with no nebulosity indicated. The source flux in the energy band 2–10keV is found to be f = 4.3 × 10−13erg s−1 cm−2, which corresponds to the luminosity of Lx = 4πD2f ≈ 6.6 × 1032(D/3.6kpc)2 erg s−1, where D is the distance, and correspond to ≈ 6 × 10−4 of the rotation power of the pulsar. The pulsation is found at the period predicted by the radio ephemerides with very narrow primary peaks, the width of which is about 1/16 phase ≈ 100μs near the time resolution limit (61μs) of the observation. The pulsed luminosity within the primary peak (1/16 phase interval) is found to be fp = 4.0 × 10−12erg s−1 cm−2. Although there may be a secondary peak, its statistical significance is too low to identify. Spectra of the whole source region and the primary peak are fitted by power law models to give photon indices of about unity for both.

Type
Part 5. High-Energy Observations
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2000

References

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