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arXiv 2112.04531astro-ph.HE
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在银河系外瞬变AT2018cow之后存在致密天体的证据

Evidence for a Compact Object in the Aftermath of the Extra-Galactic Transient AT2018cow

Dheeraj R. Pasham, Wynn C. G. Ho, William Alston, Ronald Remillard, Mason Ng, Keith Gendreau, Brian D. Metzger, Diego Altamirano, Deepto Chakrabarty, Andrew Fab… 展开作者

Dheeraj R. Pasham, Wynn C. G. Ho, William Alston, Ronald Remillard, Mason Ng, Keith Gendreau, Brian D. Metzger, Diego Altamirano, Deepto Chakrabarty, Andrew Fabian, Jon Miller, Peter Bult, Zaven Arzoumanian, James F. Steiner, Tod Strohmayer, Francesco Tombesi, Jeroen Homan, Edward M. Cackett, Alice Harding

摘要:

最亮的快蓝光学瞬变(FBOTs)是神秘的河外爆炸,可能代表了一类新的天体物理现象。它们快速达到最大亮度的时间不到一周,并在几个月内下降,以及非典型的光谱和演化很难在大质量恒星的核心坍缩背景下解释,这些恒星由镍-56的放射性衰变提供动力,并且演化得更慢。AT 2018 cow(红移为0.014)是一个极端的FBOT,因为它的演化速度快,光度高。在此,我们提供了AT 2018奶牛软X射线的高振幅准周期振荡(QPO)的证据,频率为224 Hz(在3.7 $σ$显著性水平或0.02%的虚警概率下),分数均方根振幅> 30%。这个信号出现在整个60天爆发的平均功率密度谱中,表明它是一个持续了10亿个周期的高度持久的信号。224 Hz(4.4 ms)的高频(快速时标)证明了AT 2018 cow中的致密物体,它可能是质量小于850太阳质量的中子星或黑洞。如果QPO是中子星的自旋周期,我们就可以对恒星的磁场强度设定限制。我们的工作突出了一种新的方法,使用高时间分辨率的X射线观测研究FBOTs。

英文摘要:

The brightest Fast Blue Optical Transients (FBOTs) are mysterious extragalactic explosions that may represent a new class of astrophysical phenomena. Their fast time to maximum brightness of less than a week and decline over several months and atypical optical spectra and evolution are difficult to explain within the context of core-collapse of massive stars which are powered by radioactive decay of Nickel-56 and evolve more slowly. AT2018cow (at redshift of 0.014) is an extreme FBOT in terms of rapid evolution and high luminosities. Here we present evidence for a high-amplitude quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) of AT2018cow's soft X-rays with a frequency of 224 Hz (at 3.7$σ$ significance level or false alarm probability of 0.02%) and fractional root-mean-squared amplitude of >30%. This signal is found in the average power density spectrum taken over the entire 60-day outburst and suggests a highly persistent signal that lasts for a billion cycles. The high frequency (rapid timescale) of 224 Hz (4.4 ms) argues for a compact object in AT2018cow, which can be a neutron star or black hole with a mass less than 850 solar masses. If the QPO is the spin period of a neutron star, we can set limits on the star's magnetic field strength. Our work highlights a new way of using high time-resolution X-ray observations to study FBOTs.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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