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Chen P, Gal-Yam A, Sollerman J, Schulze S, Post RS, Liu C, Ofek EO, Das KK, Fremling C, Horesh A, Katz B, Kushnir D, Kasliwal MM, Kulkarni SR, Liu D, Liu X, Miller AA, Rose K, Waxman E, Yang S, Yao Y, Zackay B, Bellm EC, Dekany R, Drake AJ, Fang Y, Fynbo JPU, Groom SL, Helou G, Irani I, Jegou du Laz T, Liu X, Mazzali PA, Neill JD, Qin YJ, Riddle RL, Sharon A, Strotjohann NL, Wold A, Yan L. A 12.4-day periodicity in a close binary system after a supernova. Nature 2024; 625:253-258. [PMID: 38200292 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06787-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2023] [Accepted: 10/26/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024]
Abstract
Neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes are the remnants of massive star explosions1. Most massive stars reside in close binary systems2, and the interplay between the companion star and the newly formed compact object has been theoretically explored3, but signatures for binarity or evidence for the formation of a compact object during a supernova explosion are still lacking. Here we report a stripped-envelope supernova, SN 2022jli, which shows 12.4-day periodic undulations during the declining light curve. Narrow Hα emission is detected in late-time spectra with concordant periodic velocity shifts, probably arising from hydrogen gas stripped from a companion and accreted onto the compact remnant. A new Fermi-LAT γ-ray source is temporally and positionally consistent with SN 2022jli. The observed properties of SN 2022jli, including periodic undulations in the optical light curve, coherent Hα emission shifting and evidence for association with a γ-ray source, point to the explosion of a massive star in a binary system leaving behind a bound compact remnant. Mass accretion from the companion star onto the compact object powers the light curve of the supernova and generates the γ-ray emission.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ping Chen
- Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
| | - Avishay Gal-Yam
- Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Jesper Sollerman
- The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Steve Schulze
- The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | | | - Chang Liu
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
- Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Eran O Ofek
- Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Kaustav K Das
- Cahill Center for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Christoffer Fremling
- Caltech Optical Observatories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Assaf Horesh
- Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Boaz Katz
- Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Doron Kushnir
- Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Mansi M Kasliwal
- Cahill Center for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Shri R Kulkarni
- Cahill Center for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Dezi Liu
- South-Western Institute for Astronomy Research, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiangkun Liu
- South-Western Institute for Astronomy Research, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China
| | - Adam A Miller
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
- Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Kovi Rose
- Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Eli Waxman
- Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Sheng Yang
- The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
- Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Yuhan Yao
- Cahill Center for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Barak Zackay
- Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Eric C Bellm
- DIRAC Institute, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Richard Dekany
- Caltech Optical Observatories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Andrew J Drake
- Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Yuan Fang
- South-Western Institute for Astronomy Research, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China
| | - Johan P U Fynbo
- The Cosmic DAWN Center, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Steven L Groom
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - George Helou
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Ido Irani
- Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Theophile Jegou du Laz
- Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Xiaowei Liu
- South-Western Institute for Astronomy Research, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China
| | - Paolo A Mazzali
- Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
- Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching, Germany
| | - James D Neill
- Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Yu-Jing Qin
- Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Reed L Riddle
- Caltech Optical Observatories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Amir Sharon
- Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Nora L Strotjohann
- Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Avery Wold
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Lin Yan
- Caltech Optical Observatories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
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Enoto T, Kisaka S, Shibata S. Observational diversity of magnetized neutron stars. REPORTS ON PROGRESS IN PHYSICS. PHYSICAL SOCIETY (GREAT BRITAIN) 2019; 82:106901. [PMID: 31549688 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6633/ab3def] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Young and rotation-powered neutron stars (NSs) are commonly observed as rapidly-spinning pulsars. They dissipate their rotational energy by emitting pulsar wind with electromagnetic radiation and spin down at a steady rate, according to the simple steadily-rotating magnetic dipole model. In reality, however, multiwavelength observations of radiation from the NS surface and magnetosphere have revealed that the evolution and properties of NSs are highly diverse, often dubbed as 'NS zoo'. In particular, many of young and highly magnetized NSs show a high degree of activities, such as sporadic electromagnetic outbursts and irregular changes in pulse arrival times. Importantly, their magnetic field, which are the strongest in the universe, makes them ideal laboratories for fundamental physics. A class of highly-magnetized isolated NSs is empirically divided into several subclasses. In a broad classification, they are, in the order of the magnetic field strength (B) from the highest, 'magnetars' (historically recognized as soft gamma-ray repeaters and/or anomalous x-ray pulsars), 'high-B pulsars', and (nearby) x-ray isolated NSs. This article presents an introductory review for non-astrophysicists about the observational properties of highly-magnetized NSs, and their implications. The observed dynamic nature of NSs must be interpreted in conjunction with transient magnetic activities triggered during magnetic-energy dissipation process. In particular, we focus on how the five fundamental quantities of NSs, i.e. mass, radius, spin period, surface temperature, and magnetic fields, as observed with modern instruments, change with evolution of, and vary depending on the class of, the NSs. They are the foundation for a future unified theory of NSs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teruaki Enoto
- Department of Astronomy and The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8302, Japan
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Pasham DR, Remillard RA, Fragile PC, Franchini A, Stone NC, Lodato G, Homan J, Chakrabarty D, Baganoff FK, Steiner JF, Coughlin ER, Pasham NR. A loud quasi-periodic oscillation after a star is disrupted by a massive black hole. Science 2019; 363:531-534. [PMID: 30626629 DOI: 10.1126/science.aar7480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2017] [Accepted: 12/12/2018] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
The tidal forces close to massive black holes can rip apart stars that come too close to them. As the resulting stellar debris spirals toward the black hole, the debris heats up and emits x-rays. We report observations of a stable 131-second x-ray quasi-periodic oscillation from the tidal disruption event ASASSN-14li. Assuming the black hole mass indicated by host galaxy scaling relations, these observations imply that the periodicity originates from close to the event horizon and that the black hole is rapidly spinning. Our findings demonstrate that tidal disruption events can generate quasi-periodic oscillations that encode information about the physical properties of their black holes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dheeraj R Pasham
- Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
| | - Ronald A Remillard
- Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - P Chris Fragile
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424, USA
| | - Alessia Franchini
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA
| | - Nicholas C Stone
- Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Giuseppe Lodato
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan 20133, Italy
| | - Jeroen Homan
- Eureka Scientific, Oakland, CA 94602, USA.,SRON, Netherlands Institute for Space Research, 3584 CA Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Deepto Chakrabarty
- Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Frederick K Baganoff
- Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - James F Steiner
- Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Eric R Coughlin
- Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
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Christodoulou DM, Laycock SGT, Kazanas D. A Striking Confluence Between Theory and Observations of High-Mass X-ray Binary Pulsars. RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS 2018; 18:10.1088/1674-4527/18/10/128. [PMID: 32021612 PMCID: PMC6999737 DOI: 10.1088/1674-4527/18/10/128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
We analyse the most powerful X-ray outbursts from neutron stars in ten Magellanic high-mass X-ray binaries and three pulsating ultraluminous X-ray sources. Most of the outbursts rise to L max which is about the level of the Eddington luminosity, while the rest and more powerful outbursts also appear to recognize that limit when their emissions are assumed to be anisotropic and beamed toward our direction. We use the measurements of pulsar spin periods P S and their derivativesP ˙ S to calculate the X-ray luminosities L p in their faintest accreting ("propeller") states. In four cases with unknownP ˙ S , we use the lowest observed X-ray luminosities, which only adds to the heterogeneity of the sample. Then we calculate the ratios L p /L max and we obtain an outstanding confluence of theory and observations from which we conclude that work done on both fronts is accurate and the results are trustworthy: sources known to reside on the lowest Magellanic propeller line are all located on/near that line, whereas other sources jump higher and reach higher-lying propeller lines. These jumps can be interpreted in only one way, higher-lying pulsars have stronger surface magnetic fields in agreement with empirical results in whichP ˙ S and L p values were not used.
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Affiliation(s)
- D. M. Christodoulou
- Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA
| | - S. G. T. Laycock
- Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA
- Department of Physics & Applied Physics, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA
| | - D. Kazanas
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Laboratory for High-Energy Astrophysics, Code 663, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
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Christodoulou DM, Laycock SGT, Kazanas D, Cappallo R, Contopoulos I. The Great Pretenders Among the ULX Class. RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS 2017; 17:063. [PMID: 32849859 PMCID: PMC7447115 DOI: 10.1088/1674-4527/17/6/63] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The recent discoveries of pulsed X-ray emission from three ultraluminous X-ray (ULX) sources have finally enabled us to recognize a subclass within the ULX class: the great pretenders, neutron stars (NSs) that appear to emit X-ray radiation at isotropic luminosities L X = 7 × 1039 erg s-1 - 1 × 1041 erg s-1 only because their emissions are strongly beamed toward our direction and our sight lines are offset by only a few degrees from their magnetic-dipole axes. The three known pretenders appear to be stronger emitters than the presumed black holes of the ULX class, such as Holmberg II & IX X-1, IC10 X-1, and NGC300 X-1. For these three NSs, we have adopted a single reasonable assumption, that their brightest observed outbursts unfold at the Eddington rate, and we have calculated both their propeller states and their surface magnetic-field magnitudes. We find that the results are not at all different from those recently obtained for the Magellanic Be/X-ray pulsars: the three NSs reveal modest magnetic fields of about 0.3-0.4 TG and beamed propeller-line X-ray luminosities of ~ 1036-37 erg s-1, substantially below the Eddington limit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dimitris M Christodoulou
- Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA
| | - Silas G T Laycock
- Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA
- Department of Physics & Applied Physics, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA
| | - Demosthenes Kazanas
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Laboratory for High-Energy Astrophysics, Code 663, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
| | - Rigel Cappallo
- Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA
- Department of Physics & Applied Physics, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA
| | - Ioannis Contopoulos
- Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics, Academy of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece
- National Research Nuclear University, Moscow 115409, Russia
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