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Chameleon Pulsar Baffles Astronomers

24th January 2013

ChameleonA
This illustration shows the pulsar with glowing cones of radiation stemming from its magnetic poles – a state referred to as 'radio-bright' mode. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab. For all images and full captions see below.

A pulsar that is able, without warning, to dramatically change the way in which it shines has been identified by an international team including scientists from the University of Manchester.

Using a satellite X-ray telescope combined with terrestrial radio telescopes the pulsar was found to flip on a roughly half-hour timescale between two extreme states; one dominated by X-ray pulses, the other by a highly organised pattern of radio pulses.

The research was led by Professor Wim Hermsen from The Netherlands Institute for Space Research and the University of Amsterdam and will appear in the journal Science on the 25th January 2012.

Researchers from Jodrell Bank as well as institutions around the world used simultaneous observations with the X-ray satellite XMM-Newton and two radio telescopes; the LOw Frequency Array (LOFAR) in the Netherlands and the Giant Meter Wave Telescope (GMRT) in India to reveal this so far unique behaviour.

Pulsars are small spinning stars that are about the size of a city, around 20 km in diameter. They emit oppositely directed beams of radiation from their magnetic poles. Just like a lighthouse, as the star spins and the beam sweeps repeatedly past the Earth we see a brief flash. Some pulsars produce radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, including at X-ray and radio wavelengths. Despite being discovered more than 45 years ago the exact mechanism by which pulsars shine is still unknown.

It has been known for some time that some radio-emitting pulsars flip their behaviour between two (or even more) states, changing the pattern and intensity of their radio pulses. The moment of flip is both unpredictable and sudden. It is also known from satellite-borne telescopes that a handful of radio pulsars can also be detected at X-ray frequencies. However, the X-ray signal is so weak that nothing is known of its variability.

To find out if the X-rays could also flip the scientists studied a particular pulsar called PSR B0943+10, one of the first to be discovered. It has radio pulses which change in form and brightness every few hours with some of the changes happening within about a second.

Dr Ben Stappers from Manchester’s School of Physics & Astronomy says: “The behaviour of this pulsar is quite startling, it’s as if it has two distinct personalities. As PSR B0943+10 is one of the few pulsars also known to emit X-rays, finding out how this higher energy radiation behaves as the radio changes could provide new insight into the nature of the emission process.”

Since the source is a weak X-ray emitter, the team used the most sensitive X-ray telescope in existence, the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton on board a spacecraft orbiting the Earth. The observations took place over six separate sessions of about six hours in duration. To identify the exact moment of flip in the pulsar’s radio behaviour the X-ray observations were tracked simultaneously with two of the largest radio telescopes in the world, LOFAR and the GMRT.

What the scientists found was that whilst the X-rays did indeed change their behaviour at the same time as the radio emission, as might have been expected, in the state where the radio signal is strong and organised the X-rays were weak, and when the radio emission switched to weak the X-rays got brighter.

Commenting on the study’s findings the project leader Wim Hermsen says: “To our surprise we found that when the brightness of the radio emission halved, the X-ray emission brightened by a factor of two! Furthermore the intense X-rays have a very different character from those in the radio-bright state, since they seem to be thermal in origin and to pulse with the neutron star’s rotation period.”

Dr Stappers says this is an exciting discovery: “As well as brightening in the X-rays we discovered that the X-ray emission also shows pulses, something not seen when the radio emission is bright. This was the opposite of what we had expected. I’ve likened the changes in the pulsar to a chameleon. Like the animal the star changes in reaction to its environment, such as a change in temperature.”

Geoff Wright from the University of Sussex adds: “Our observations strongly suggest that a temporary "hotspot” appears close to the pulsar’s magnetic pole which switches on and off with the change of state. But why a pulsar should undergo such dramatic and unpredictable changes is completely unknown.”

The next step for the researchers is to look at other objects which have similar behaviour to investigate what happens to the X-ray emission. Later this year there will be another round of simultaneous X-ray and radio observations of a second pulsar. These observations will include the Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory. 

Notes

Dr Ben Stappers co-leads the radio pulsar project with the LOFAR telescope.

This research was a global project spanning a number of countries. The research was led by Wim Hermsen (SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, UvA), Lucien Kuiper and Jelle de Plaa (SRON), Jason Hessels and Joeri van Leeuwen (ASTRON en UvA), Dipanjan Mitra (NCFRA-TIFR, Pune, India), Joanna Rankin (University of Vermont, Burlington, VS), Ben Stappers (University of Manchester, UK), Geoffrey Wright (University of Sussex, UK). The Pulsar Working Group and the Builders Group from the LOFAR-telescope, which was at the time still in the commissioning phase, gave support to these observations.

The results of this research, entitled: Synchronous X-ray and Radio Mode Switches: a Rapid Transformation of the Pulsar Magnetosphere will be published in Science on Friday 25 January.

For more information contact:

Daniel Cochlin
Media Relations Officer
Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences
The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 275 8387
Email: Daniel.Cochlin@manchester.ac.uk

Full captions to images

ChameleonA

Artist's impression of a pulsar in radio-bright mode

This illustration shows a pulsar with glowing cones of radiation stemming from its magnetic poles – a state referred to as 'radio-bright' mode.

Pulsars were discovered in 1967 as flickering sources of radio waves and soon after interpreted as rapidly rotating and strongly magnetised neutron stars. There is a general agreement about the origin of the radio emission from pulsars: it is caused by highly energetic electrons, positrons and ions moving along the field lines of the pulsar's magnetic field. When they are accelerated to very high energies, particles radiate at radio wavelengths. The radio emission is concentrated in cones that stem from the pulsar's magnetic poles, and we see it pulsate because the rotation and magnetic axes are misaligned.

Many pulsars exhibit a rather erratic behaviour: in the space of a few seconds, their radio emission becomes weaker or even disappears for a while, then returns to the previous level after some hours. The mechanisms causing this switch between what are usually referred to as 'radio-bright' and 'radio-quiet' states are still largely unknown.

Observations of the five-million year-old pulsar known as PSR B0943+10, performed simultaneously with ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory and ground-based radio telescopes, revealed that this source exhibits variations in its X-ray emission that mimic in reverse the changes seen in radio waves. No current model is able to predict what could cause such sudden and drastic changes to the pulsar's entire magnetosphere and result in such a curious emission.

Credit: ESA/ATG medialab


ChameleonB

Artist's impression of a pulsar in X-ray-bright/radio-quiet mode

This illustration shows a pulsar with glowing 'hot-spots' that are located at its magnetic poles, the likely sites of X-ray emission from old pulsars. In particular, the illustration shows the pulsar in a state characterised by bright X-ray emission, arising from the polar caps, and relatively low radio emission from the cones that stem from the pulsar's magnetic poles ('X-ray-bright/radio-quiet' mode).

Pulsars were discovered in 1967 as flickering sources of radio waves and soon after interpreted as rapidly rotating and strongly magnetised neutron stars. There is a general agreement about the origin of the radio emission from pulsars: it is caused by highly energetic electrons, positrons and ions moving along the field lines of the pulsar's magnetic field. When they are accelerated to very high energies, particles radiate at radio wavelengths. The radio emission is concentrated in cones that stem from the pulsar's magnetic poles, and we see it pulsate because the rotation and magnetic axes are misaligned.

Many pulsars exhibit a rather erratic behaviour: in the space of a few seconds, their radio emission becomes weaker or even disappears for a while, then returns to the previous level after some hours. The mechanisms causing this switch between what are usually referred to as 'radio-bright' and 'radio-quiet' states are still largely unknown.

When they are young, pulsars also shine in X-rays because the surface of the neutron star is still very hot. Old pulsars are much weaker sources of X-rays, because the surface of the neutron star has cooled down. Astronomers know of only a handful of old pulsars that shine in X-rays and believe that this emission comes from the magnetic poles – the sites on the neutron star's surface where the acceleration of charged particles is triggered.

Observations of the five-million year-old pulsar known as PSR B0943+10, performed simultaneously with ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory and ground-based radio telescopes, revealed that this source exhibits variations in its X-ray emission that mimic in reverse the changes seen in radio waves. No current model is able to predict what could cause such sudden and drastic changes to the pulsar's entire magnetosphere and result in such a curious emission.

Credit: ESA/ATG medialab


ChameleonC

The two states of pulsar PSR B0943+10 as observed with XMM-Newton and LOFAR

This illustration shows the two states of emission observed from pulsar PSR B0943+10, which is well known for switching between a 'bright' and 'quiet' mode at radio wavelengths. Observations of PSR B0943+10, performed simultaneously with ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory and ground-based radio telescopes, revealed that this source exhibits variations in its X-ray emission that mimic in reverse the changes seen in radio waves. No current model is able to predict what could cause such sudden and drastic changes to the pulsar's entire magnetosphere and result in such a curious emission.

In the upper part of the illustration, the artist's impression on the left shows the pulsar with glowing cones of radiation stemming from its magnetic poles – a state referred to as 'radio-bright' mode. Radio emission from pulsars is known to arise from these cones, and we see it pulsate because the pulsar's rotation and magnetic axes are misaligned. The graphs on the right side show data from X-ray observations, performed with XMM-Newton (upper graph), and from radio observations, performed with the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR; lower graph). The upper graph shows that, in the 'radio-bright' mode, the pulsar does not shine brightly in X-rays. The lower graph shows a bright and pulsating emission at radio wavelengths.

In the lower part of the illustration, the artist's impression on the left shows the pulsar in a different state, with glowing 'hot-spots' that are located at its magnetic poles. In particular, the illustration shows the pulsar in a state characterised by bright X-ray emission, arising from the polar caps, and relatively low radio emission from the cones that stem from the pulsar's magnetic poles ('X-ray-bright/radio-quiet' mode). The graphs on the right side show how, in this mode, the pulsar exhibits a brighter and pulsating X-ray emission, whereas the radio emission is fainter but still pulsating.

Credit: ESA/ATG medialab; ESA/XMM-Newton; ASTRON/LOFAR