Submitted on November 27, 2007
Accepted on February 13, 2008
Magnetar-like Emission from the Young Pulsar in Kes 75
F. P. Gavriil 1*, M. E. Gonzalez 2, E. V. Gotthelf 3, V. M. Kaspi 2, M. A. Livingstone 2, P. M. Woods 4
1 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 662, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.; CRESST, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
2 Department of Physics, McGill University, 3600 University St, Montreal, QC H3A 2T8, Canada.
3 Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027-6001, USA.
4 Dynetics, Inc., 1000 Explorer Boulevard, Huntsville, AL, 25806, USA.; NSSTC, 320 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville, AL, 35805, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
F. P. Gavriil , E-mail: gavriil{at}milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov
We report detection of magnetar-like X-ray bursts from the young pulsar PSR J1846-0258, at the center of the supernova remnant Kes 75. This pulsar, long thought to be rotation-powered, has an inferred surface dipolar magnetic field of 4.9 x 1013 G, higher than those of the vast majority of rotation-powered pulsars, but lower than those of the ~12 previously identified magnetars. The bursts were accompanied by a sudden flux increase and an unprecedented change in timing behavior. These phenomena lower the magnetic and rotational thresholds associated with magnetar-like behavior, and suggest that in neutron stars there exists a continuum of magnetic activity that increases with inferred magnetic field strength.
