XMM-Newton observation of the very old pulsar J0108−1431

G.G. Pavlov
Pennsylvania State University, USA

We report on an X-ray observation of the 166 Myr old radio pulsar J0108−1431 with XMM-Newton. The X-ray spectrum can be described by a power-law model with a relatively steep photon index Gamma ∼ 3 or by a combination of thermal and non-thermal components, e.g., a power-law component with fixed photon index Gamma = 2 plus a blackbody component with a temperature of kT = 0.11 keV. The two-component model appears more reasonable considering different estimates for the hydrogen column density NH. We detected X-ray pulsations at the radio period of P ≈ 0.808 s with significance of ∼ 7 sigma. The pulse shape in the folded X-ray lightcurve (0.15—2 keV) is asymmetric, with statistically significant contributions from up to 5 leading harmonics. Pulse profiles at two different energy ranges differ slightly: the profile is asymmetric at low energies, 0.15—1 keV, while at higher energies, 1—2 keV, it has a nearly sinusodial shape. The radio pulse peak leads the 0.15—2 keV X-ray pulse peak by Delta phi = 0.06 ± 0.03.


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