| Title | Re-detection and a possible time variation of soft X-ray polarization from the Crab |
| Authors | Feng, Hua Li, Hong Long, Xiangyun Bellazzini, Ronaldo Costa, Enrico Wu, Qiong Huang, Jiahui Jaing, Weichun Minuti, Massimo Wang, Weihua Xu, Renxin Yang, Dongxin Baldini, Luca Citraro, Saverio Nasimi, Hikmat Soffitta, Paolo Muleri, Fabio Jung, Aera Yu, Jiandong Jin, Ge Zeng, Ming An, Peng Brez, Alessandro Latronico, Luca Sgro, Carmelo Spandre, Gloria Pinchera, Michele |
| Affiliation | Tsinghua Univ, Dept Astron, Beijing, Peoples R China Tsinghua Univ, Dept Engn Phys, Beijing, Peoples R China INFN Pisa, Pisa, Italy IAPS INAF, Rome, Italy Chinese Acad Sci, Inst High Energy Phys, Key Lab Particle Astrophys, Beijing, Peoples R China Peking Univ, Sch Phys, Dept Astron, Beijing, Peoples R China Ningbo Univ Technol, Sch Elect & Informat Engn, Ningbo, Peoples R China North Night Vis Technol Co Ltd, Nanjing, Peoples R China |
| Keywords | GAS PIXEL DETECTOR POSTGLITCH RELAXATION PULSAR GLITCHES POLARIMETRY SUPERFLUIDITY RADIATION VELA |
| Issue Date | May-2020 |
| Publisher | NATURE ASTRONOMY |
| Abstract | The Crab nebula is so far the only celestial object with a statistically significant detection in soft X-ray polarimetry(1-4), a window that has not been explored in astronomy since the 1970s. However, soft X-ray polarimetry is expected to be a sensitive probe of magnetic fields in high-energy astrophysical objects, including rotation-powered pulsars(5-7) and pulsar wind nebulae(8). Here we report the re-detection of soft X-ray polarization after 40 years from the Crab nebula and pulsar with PolarLight(9), a miniature polarimeter utilizing a novel technique(10,11) onboard a CubeSat. The polarization fraction of the Crab in the on-pulse phases was observed to decrease after a glitch of the Crab pulsar on 23 July 2019, while that of the pure nebular emission remained constant within uncertainty. The phenomenon may have lasted about 100 days. If the association between the glitch and polarization change can be confirmed with future observations, it will place strong constraints on the physical mechanism of the high-energy emission(12-14) and glitch(15-17) of pulsars. A soft X-ray polarimetry capability has been missing from astronomy since the late 1970s. Here a CubeSat polarimeter named PolarLight has detected the Crab nebula and pulsar in the soft X-ray band, measuring their polarized emission. PolarLight observed a pulsar glitch, with an associated polarization change. |
| URI | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11897/588913 |
| ISSN | 2397-3366 |
| DOI | 10.1038/s41550-020-1088-1 |
| Indexed | SCI(E) Scopus |
| Appears in Collections: | 物理学院 |
