An accreting pulsar with extreme properties drives an ultraluminous x-ray source in NGC 5907

Israel GL, Belfiore A, Stella L, Esposito P, Casella P, De Luca A, Marelli M, Papitto A, Perri M, Puccetti S, Rodriguez Castillo GA, Salvetti D, Tiengo A, Zampieri L, D'Agostino D, Greiner J, Haberl F, Novara G, Salvaterra R, Turolla R, Watson M, Wilms J, Wolter A (2017)


Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2017

Journal

Publisher: AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE

Book Volume: 355

Pages Range: 817-819

Journal Issue: 6327

DOI: 10.1126/science.aai8635

Abstract

Ultraluminous x-ray sources (ULXs) in nearby galaxies shine brighter than any x-ray source in our Galaxy. ULXs are usually modeled as stellar-mass black holes (BHs) accreting at very high rates or intermediate-mass BHs. We present observations showing that NGC 5907 ULX is instead an x-ray accreting neutron star (NS) with a spin period evolving from 1.43 seconds in 2003 to 1.13 seconds in 2014. It has an isotropic peak luminosity of similar to 1000 times the Eddington limit for a NS at 17.1 megaparsec. Standard accretion models fail to explain its luminosity, even assuming beamed emission, but a strong multipolar magnetic field can describe its properties. These findings suggest that other extreme ULXs (x-ray luminosity >= 1041 erg second(-1)) might harbor NSs.

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APA:

Israel, G.L., Belfiore, A., Stella, L., Esposito, P., Casella, P., De Luca, A.,... Wolter, A. (2017). An accreting pulsar with extreme properties drives an ultraluminous x-ray source in NGC 5907. Science, 355(6327), 817-819. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aai8635

MLA:

Israel, Gian Luca, et al. "An accreting pulsar with extreme properties drives an ultraluminous x-ray source in NGC 5907." Science 355.6327 (2017): 817-819.

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