arXiv subjects

Tod E. Strohmayer

Publications and source records attributed to Tod E. Strohmayer.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Long-term coherent timing of the accreting millisecond pulsar IGR J17062-6143

We report on a coherent timing analysis of the 163 Hz accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J17062-6143. Using data collected with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer and XMM-Newton, we investigated the pulsar evolution over a timespan of four years. We obtained a unique phase-coherent timing solution for the stellar spin, finding the source to be spinning up at a rate of $(3.77\pm0.09)\times 10^{-15}$ Hz/s. We further find that the $0.4-6$ keV pulse fraction varies gradually between 0.5% and 2.5% following a sinusoidal oscillation with a $1210\pm40$ day period. Finally, we supplemented this analysis with an archival Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer observation, and obtained a phase coherent model for the binary orbit spanning 12 years, yielding an orbital period derivative measurement of $(8.4\pm2.0) \times 10^{-12}$ s/s. This large orbital period derivative is inconsistent with a binary evolution that is dominated by gravitational wave emission, and is suggestive of highly non-conservative mass transfer in the binary system.

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arXiv2021

NICER Discovery of Millisecond X-ray Pulsations and an Ultracompact Orbit in IGR J17494-3030

We report the detection of 376.05 Hz (2.66 ms) coherent X-ray pulsations in NICER observations of a transient outburst of the low-mass X-ray binary IGR J17494-3030 in 2020 October/November. The system is an accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar in a 75 minute ultracompact binary. The mass donor is most likely a $\simeq 0.02 M_\odot$ finite-entropy white dwarf composed of He or C/O. The fractional rms pulsed amplitude is 7.4%, and the soft (1-3 keV) X-ray pulse profile contains a significant second harmonic. The pulsed amplitude and pulse phase lag (relative to our mean timing model) are energy-dependent, each having a local maximum at 4 keV and 1.5 keV, respectively. We also recovered the X-ray pulsations in archival 2012 XMM-Newton observations, allowing us to measure a long-term pulsar spin-down rate of $\dotν= -2.1(7)\times10^{-14}$ Hz/s and to infer a pulsar surface dipole magnetic field strength of $\simeq 10^9$ G. We show that the mass transfer in the binary is likely non-conservative, and we discuss various scenarios for mass loss from the system.

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arXiv2021

Thermonuclear X-ray Bursts with late secondary peaks observed from 4U 1608-52

We report the temporal and spectral analysis of three thermonuclear X-ray bursts from 4U 1608-52, observed by the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) during and just after the outburst observed from the source in 2020. In two of the X-ray bursts, we detect secondary peaks, 30 and 18 seconds after the initial peaks. The secondary peaks show a fast rise exponential decay-like shape resembling a thermonuclear X-ray burst. Time-resolved X-ray spectral analysis reveals that the peak flux, blackbody temperature, and apparent emitting radius values of the initial peaks are in agreement with X-ray bursts previously observed from 4U 1608-52, while the same values for the secondary peaks tend toward the lower end of the distribution of bursts observed from this source. The third X-ray burst, which happened during much lower accretion rates did not show any evidence for a deviation from an exponential decay and was significantly brighter than the previous bursts. We present the properties of the secondary peaks and discuss the events within the framework of short recurrence time bursts or bursts with secondary peaks. We find that the current observations do not fit in standard scenarios and challenge our understanding of flame spreading.

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arXiv2020

The X-ray bursts of XTE J1739-285: a NICER sample

In this work we report on observations with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer of the known neutron star X-ray transient XTE J1739-285. We observed the source in 2020 February and March, finding it in a highly active bursting state. Across a 20-day period, we detected 32 thermonuclear X-ray bursts, with an average burst recurrence time of $2.0^{+0.4}_{-0.3}$ hr. A timing and spectral analysis of the ensemble of X-ray bursts reveals homogeneous burst properties, evidence for short-recurrence time bursts, and the detection of a 386.5 Hz burst oscillation candidate. The latter is especially notable, given that a previous study of this source claimed a 1122 Hz burst oscillation candidate. We did not find any evidence of variability near 1122 Hz, and instead find that the 386.5 Hz oscillation is the more prominent signal of the two burst oscillation candidates. Hence, we conclude it is unlikely that XTE J1739-285 has a sub-millisecond rotation period.

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arXiv2020

NICER Observation of the Temporal and Spectral Evolution of Swift J1818.0-1607: a Missing Link between Magnetars and Rotation Powered Pulsars

We report on the hard X-ray burst and the first ~100 days NICER monitoring of the soft X-ray temporal and spectral evolution of the newly-discovered magnetar Swift J1818.0-1607. The burst properties are typical of magnetars with a duration of $T_{90}=10\pm4$ ms and a temperature of $kT=8.4\pm0.7$ keV. The 2--8 keV pulse shows a broad, single peak profile with a pulse fraction increasing with time from 30% to 43%. The NICER observations reveal strong timing noise with $\dotν$ varying erratically by a factor of 10, with an average long-term spin-down rate of $\dotν=(-2.48\pm0.03)\times10^{-11}$~s$^{-2}$, implying an equatorial surface magnetic field of $2.5\times10^{14}$ G and a young characteristic age of $\sim$470 yr. We detect a large spin-up glitch at MJD 58928.56 followed by a candidate spin-down glitch at MJD 58934.81, with no accompanying flux enhancements. The persistent soft X-ray spectrum of Swift~J1818.0-1607 can be modeled as an absorbed blackbody with a temperature of ~1 keV. Its flux decayed by ~60% while the modeled emitting area decreased by ~30% over the NICER observing campaign. This decrease, coupled with the increase in the pulse fraction points to a shrinking hot spot on the neutron star surface. Assuming a distance of 6.5 kpc, we measure a peak X-ray luminosity of $1.9\times10^{35}$ erg/s, lower than its spin-down luminosity of $7.2\times10^{35}$ erg/s. Its quiescent thermal luminosity is $\lesssim 1.7\times10^{34}$ erg/s, lower than those of canonical young magnetars. We conclude that Swift J1818.0-1607 is an important link between regular magnetars and high magnetic field rotation powered pulsars.

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arXiv2019

A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation

We report on Bayesian parameter estimation of the mass and equatorial radius of the millisecond pulsar PSR J0030$+$0451, conditional on pulse-profile modeling of Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) X-ray spectral-timing event data. We perform relativistic ray-tracing of thermal emission from hot regions of the pulsar's surface. We assume two distinct hot regions based on two clear pulsed components in the phase-folded pulse-profile data; we explore a number of forms (morphologies and topologies) for each hot region, inferring their parameters in addition to the stellar mass and radius. For the family of models considered, the evidence (prior predictive probability of the data) strongly favors a model that permits both hot regions to be located in the same rotational hemisphere. Models wherein both hot regions are assumed to be simply-connected circular single-temperature spots, in particular those where the spots are assumed to be reflection-symmetric with respect to the stellar origin, are strongly disfavored. For the inferred configuration, one hot region subtends an angular extent of only a few degrees (in spherical coordinates with origin at the stellar center) and we are insensitive to other structural details; the second hot region is far more azimuthally extended in the form of a narrow arc, thus requiring a larger number of parameters to describe. The inferred mass $M$ and equatorial radius $R_\mathrm{eq}$ are, respectively, $1.34_{-0.16}^{+0.15}$ M$_{\odot}$ and $12.71_{-1.19}^{+1.14}$ km, whilst the compactness $GM/R_\mathrm{eq}c^2 = 0.156_{-0.010}^{+0.008}$ is more tightly constrained; the credible interval bounds reported here are approximately the $16\%$ and $84\%$ quantiles in marginal posterior mass.

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arXiv2019

Constraining the Neutron Star Mass-Radius Relation and Dense Matter Equation of State with NICER. I. The Millisecond Pulsar X-ray Data Set

We present the set of deep Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) X-ray timing observations of the nearby rotation-powered millisecond pulsars PSRs J0437-4715, J0030+0451, J1231-1411, and J2124-3358, selected as targets for constraining the mass-radius relation of neutron stars and the dense matter equation of state via modeling of their pulsed thermal X-ray emission. We describe the instrument, observations, and data processing/reduction procedures, as well as the series of investigations conducted to ensure that the properties of the data sets are suitable for parameter estimation analyses to produce reliable constraints on the neutron star mass-radius relation and the dense matter equation of state. We find that the long-term timing and flux behavior and the Fourier-domain properties of the event data do not exhibit any anomalies that could adversely affect the intended measurements. From phase-selected spectroscopy, we find that emission from the individual pulse peaks is well described by a single-temperature hydrogen atmosphere spectrum, with the exception of PSR J0437-4715, for which multiple temperatures are required.

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arXiv2019

Constraining the Neutron Star Mass-Radius Relation and Dense Matter Equation of State with NICER. II. Emission from Hot Spots on a Rapidly Rotating Neutron Star

We describe the model of surface emission from a rapidly rotating neutron star that is applied to Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer X-ray data of millisecond pulsars in order to statistically constrain the neutron star mass-radius relation and dense matter equation of state. To ensure that the associated calculations are both accurate and precise, we conduct an extensive suite of verification tests between our numerical codes for both the Schwarzschild + Doppler and Oblate Schwarzschild approximations, and compare both approximations against exact numerical calculations. We find superb agreement between the code outputs, as well as in comparison against a set of analytical and semi-analytical calculations, which combined with their speed, demonstrates that the codes are well-suited for large-scale statistical sampling applications. A set of verified, high-precision reference synthetic pulse profiles is provided to the community to facilitate testing of other independently developed codes.

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arXiv2019

Timing the pulsations of the accreting millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 during its 2019 outburst

In this paper we present a coherent timing analysis of the 401 Hz pulsations of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 during its 2019 outburst. Using observations collected with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), we establish the pulsar spin frequency and orbital phase during its latest epoch. We find that the 2019 outburst shows a pronounced evolution in pulse phase over the course of the outburst. These phase shifts are found to correlate with the source flux, and are interpreted in terms of hot-spot drift on the stellar surface, driven by changes in the mass accretion rate. Additionally, we find that the long-term evolution of the pulsar spin frequency shows evidence for a modulation at the Earth's orbital period, enabling pulsar timing based astrometry of this accreting millisecond pulsar.

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arXiv2019

A NICER thermonuclear burst from the millisecond X-ray pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658

The Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) has extensively monitored the August 2019 outburst of the 401 Hz millisecond X-ray pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658. In this Letter, we report on the detection of a bright helium-fueled Type I X-ray burst. With a bolometric peak flux of $(2.3\pm0.1)\times 10^{-7}$ erg/cm^2/s, this was the brightest X-ray burst among all bursting sources observed with NICER to date. The burst shows a remarkable two-stage evolution in flux, emission lines at $1.0$ keV and $6.7$ keV, and burst oscillations at the known pulsar spin frequency, with $\approx4$\% fractional sinusoidal amplitude. We interpret the burst flux evolution as the detection of the local Eddington limits associated with the hydrogen and helium layers of the neutron star envelope. The emission lines are likely associated with Fe, due to reprocessing of the burst emission in the accretion disk.

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arXiv2019

NICER observes a secondary peak in the decay of a thermonuclear burst from 4U 1608-52

We report for the first time below 1.5 keV, the detection of a secondary peak in an Eddington-limited thermonuclear X-ray burst observed by the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) from the low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1608-52. Our time-resolved spectroscopy of the burst is consistent with a model consisting of a varying-temperature blackbody, and an evolving persistent flux contribution, likely attributed to the accretion process. The dip in the burst intensity before the secondary peak is also visible in the bolometric flux. Prior to the dip, the blackbody temperature reached a maximum of $\approx3$ keV. Our analysis suggests that the dip and secondary peak are not related to photospheric expansion, varying circumstellar absorption, or scattering. Instead, we discuss the observation in the context of hydrodynamical instabilities, thermonuclear flame spreading models, and re-burning in the cooling tail of the burst.

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arXiv2019

NICER Observation of Unusual Burst Oscillations in 4U 1728-34

The Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) has observed seven thermonuclear X-ray bursts from the Low Mass X-ray Binary (LMXB) neutron star 4U 1728-34 from the start of the mission's operations until February of 2019. Three of these bursts show oscillations in their decaying tail with frequencies that are within 1 Hz of the previously detected burst oscillations from this source. Two of these burst oscillations have unusual properties: They have large fractional rms amplitudes of $ 48 \pm 9 \%$ and $ 46 \pm 9 \%$, and they are detected only at photon energies above 6 keV. By contrast, the third detected burst oscillation is compatible with previous observations of this source, with a fractional rms amplitude of $7.7 \pm 1.5\%$ rms in the 0.3 to 6.2 keV energy band. We discuss the implications of these large-amplitude burst oscillations, finding they are difficult to explain with the current theoretical models for X-ray burst tail oscillations.

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arXiv2019

Anti-glitches in the Ultraluminous Accreting Pulsar NGC 300 ULX-1 Observed with NICER

We present evidence for three spin-down glitches (or `anti-glitches') in the ultraluminous accreting X-ray pulsar NGC 300 ULX-1 in timing observations made with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). Our timing analysis reveals three sudden spin-down events of magnitudes $Δν= -23, -30,$ and $-43 \,μ$Hz (fractional amplitudes $Δν/ν= -4.4, -5.5,$ and $-7.7 \times 10^{-4}$). We determined fully phase-coherent timing solutions through the first two glitches, giving us high confidence in their detection, while the third candidate glitch is somewhat less secure. These are larger in magnitude (and opposite in sign) than any known radio pulsar glitch. This may be caused by the prolonged rapid spin-up of the pulsar causing a sudden transfer of angular momentum between the superfluid and non-superfluid components of the star. We find no evidence for profile or spectral changes at the epochs of the glitches, supporting the conclusion that these are due to the same process as in normal pulsar glitches, but in reverse.

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arXiv2019

On the curious pulsation properties of the accreting millisecond pulsar IGR J17379-3747

We report on the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) monitoring campaign of the 468 Hz accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J17379-3747. From a detailed spectral and timing analysis of the coherent pulsations we find that they show a strong energy dependence, with soft thermal emission lagging about 640 microseconds behind the hard, Comptonized emission. Additionally, we observe uncommonly large pulse fractions, with measured amplitudes in excess of 20% sinusoidal fractional amplitude across the NICER passband and fluctuations of up to ~70%. Based on a phase-resolved spectral analysis, we suggest that these extreme properties might be explained if the source has an unusually favorable viewing geometry with a large magnetic misalignment angle. Due to these large pulse fractions, we were able to detect pulsations down to quiescent luminosities (~5 x 10^33 erg s^-1). We discuss these low-luminosity pulsations in the context of transitional millisecond pulsars.

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arXiv2018

NICER Discovers mHz Oscillations in the "Clocked" Burster GS 1826-238

We report the discovery with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) of mHz X-ray brightness oscillations from the "clocked burster." NICER observed the source in the periods 2017 June 20 - 29, July 11 - 13, and September 9 - 15, for a total useful exposure of 34 ks. Two consecutive dwells obtained on 2017 September 9 revealed highly significant oscillations at a frequency of 8 mHz. The fractional, sinusoidal modulation amplitude increases from 0.7 % at 1 keV to approximately 2 % at 6 keV. Similar oscillations were also detected at lower significance in three additional dwells. The oscillation frequency and amplitude are consistent with those of mHz QPOs reported in other accreting neutron star systems. A thermonuclear X-ray burst was also observed on 2017 June 22. The burst properties and X-ray colors are both consistent with the source being in a soft spectral state during these observations, findings that are confirmed by ongoing monitoring with MAXI and SWIFT-BAT. Assuming that the mHz oscillations are associated with black body emission from the neutron star surface, modeling of the phase-resolved spectra shows that the oscillation is consistent with being produced by modulation of the temperature component of this emission. In this interpretation, the black body normalization, proportional to the emitting surface area, is consistent with being constant through the oscillation cycle. We place the observations in the context of the current theory of marginally stable burning and briefly discuss the potential for constraining neutron star properties using mHz oscillations.

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arXiv2018

NICER Discovers the Ultracompact Orbit of the Accreting Millisecond Pulsar IGR J17062-6143

We present results of recent Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer observations of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J17062-6143 that show that it resides in a circular, ultracompact binary with a 38 minute orbital period. NICER observed the source for approximately 26 ksec over a 5.3 day span in 2017 August, and again for 14 and 11 ksec in 2017 October and November, respectively. A power spectral analysis of the August exposure confirms the previous detection of pulsations at 163.656 Hz in Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer data, and reveals phase modulation due to orbital motion of the neutron star. A coherent search for the orbital solution using the Z^2 method finds a best-fitting circular orbit with a period of 2278.21 s (37.97 min), a projected semi-major axis of 0.00390 lt-sec, and a barycentric pulsar frequency of 163.6561105 Hz. This is currently the shortest known orbital period for an AMXP. The mass function is 9.12 e-8} solar masses, presently the smallest known for a stellar binary. The minimum donor mass ranges from about 0.005 - 0.007 solar masses, for a neutron star mass from 1.2 - 2 solar masses. Assuming mass transfer is driven by gravitational radiation, we find donor mass and binary inclination bounds of 0.0175 - 0.0155 solar masses and 19 deg < i < 27.5 deg, where the lower and upper bounds correspond to 1.4 and 2 solar mass neutron stars, respectively. Folding the data accounting for the orbital modulation reveals a sinusoidal profile with fractional amplitude 2.04 +- 0.11 % (0.3 - 3.2 keV).

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arXiv2018

On the 2018 outburst of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar Swift J1756.9-2508 as seen with NICER

We report on the coherent timing analysis of the 182 Hz accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar Swift J1756.9$-$2508 during its 2018 outburst as observed with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). Combining our NICER observations with Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer observations of the 2007 and 2009 outbursts, we also studied the long-term spin and orbital evolution of this source. We find that the binary system is well described by a constant orbital period model, with an upper limit on the orbital period derivative of $|\dot P_b| < 7.4\times 10^{-13}$ s s$^{-1}$. Additionally, we improve upon the source coordinates through astrometric analysis of the pulse arrival times, finding R.A. = $17^{\rm h}56^{\rm m}57.18^{\rm s}\pm0.08^{\rm s}$ and Decl. = $-25^{\circ}06'27.8''\pm3.5''$, while simultaneously measuring the long-term spin frequency derivative as $\dotν= -7.3\times 10^{-16}$ Hz s$^{-1}$. We briefly discuss the implications of these measurements in the context of the wider population of accreting millisecond pulsars.

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arXiv2018

NICER Detects a Soft X-ray Kilohertz Quasi-periodic Oscillation in 4U 0614+09

We report on the detection of a kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). Analyzing approximately 165 ks of NICER exposure on the X-ray burster 4U 0614+09, we detect multiple instances of a single-peak upper kHz QPO, with centroid frequencies that range from 400 Hz to 750 Hz. We resolve the kHz QPO as a function of energy, and measure, for the first time, the QPO amplitude below 2 keV. We find the fractional amplitude at 1 keV is on the order of 2% rms, and discuss the implications for the QPO emission process in the context of Comptonization models.

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