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arXiv · 0705.3982

Physical Properties of the AXP 4U 0142+61 from X-ray Spectral Analysis

Tolga Guver·Feryal Ozel·Ersin Gogus
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Abstract

We analyze archival Chandra and XMM-Newton data of 4U 0142+61 within the context of the Surface Thermal Emission and Magnetospheric Scattering model. We show that 4U 0142+61 spectrum can be fit very well with this physical model that contains only four parameters. The system parameters can be tightly constrained from the fits, yielding a surface magnetic field strength of B=(4.75 \pm 0.02)x 10^{14} G, a surface temperature of kT = 0.309 \pm 0.001$ keV and a scattering optical depth of a few in the magnetosphere. These values do not vary between observations due to the stability of the source within the window of the observations. The detailed fits yield $χ^2$ values that are statistically much better than the traditionally employed blackbody+power-law and two blackbody fits. The spectroscopically measured surface magnetic field strength is higher than, but within, the theoretical uncertainties of the value inferred from the dipole spindown formula.

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Tolga Guver, Feryal Ozel, Ersin Gogus. 2007-11-06. Physical Properties of the AXP 4U 0142+61 from X-ray Spectral Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1086/525840

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