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American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science, 6620(378), p. 646-650, 2022

DOI: 10.1126/science.add0080

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Polarized x-rays from a magnetar

Journal article published in 2022 by Roberto Taverna ORCID, Roberto Turolla, Fabio Muleri ORCID, Jeremy Heyl ORCID, Silvia Zane ORCID, Luca Baldini ORCID, Denis González-Caniulef ORCID, Matteo Bachetti ORCID, John Rankin ORCID, Ilaria Caiazzo ORCID, Niccolò Di Lalla ORCID, Victor Doroshenko ORCID, Manel Errando ORCID, Ephraim Gau ORCID, Demet Kırmızıbayrak ORCID and other authors.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Abstract

Magnetars are neutron stars with ultrastrong magnetic fields, which can be observed in x-rays. Polarization measurements could provide information on their magnetic fields and surface properties. We observed polarized x-rays from the magnetar 4U 0142+61 using the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer and found a linear polarization degree of 13.5 ± 0.8% averaged over the 2– to 8–kilo–electron volt band. The polarization changes with energy: The degree is 15.0 ± 1.0% at 2 to 4 kilo–electron volts, drops below the instrumental sensitivity ~4 to 5 kilo–electron volts, and rises to 35.2 ± 7.1% at 5.5 to 8 kilo–electron volts. The polarization angle also changes by 90° at ~4 to 5 kilo–electron volts. These results are consistent with a model in which thermal radiation from the magnetar surface is reprocessed by scattering off charged particles in the magnetosphere.