arXiv · 0906.1604
A Mid-Infrared Counterpart to the Magnetar 1E 2259+586
Abstract
We report the discovery of a 4.5 um counterpart to the anomalous X-ray pulsar (magnetar) 1E 2259+586 with the Spitzer Space Telescope. The mid-infrared flux density is 6.3+/-1.0 uJy at 4.5 um and <20 uJy (at 95% confidence) at 8 um, or 0.02% of the 2-10 keV X-ray flux (corrected for extinction). Combining our Spitzer measurements with previously published near-infrared data, we show that the overall infrared emission from 1E 2259+586 is qualitatively similar to that from the magnetar 4U 0142+61. Therefore the passive X-ray-heated dust disk model originally developed for 4U 0142+61 might also apply to 1E 2259+586. However, the IR data from this source can also be fitted by a simple power-law spectrum as might be expected from magnetospheric emission.
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David L. Kaplan, Deepto Chakrabarty, Zhongxiang Wang, Stefanie Wachter. 2009-06-08. A Mid-Infrared Counterpart to the Magnetar 1E 2259+586. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x%2F700%2F1%2F149
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