Enhanced x-ray emission coinciding with giant radio pulses from the Crab Pulsar

Teruaki Enoto; Toshio Terasawa; Shota Kisaka; Chin-Ping Hu; Sebastien Guillot; Natalia Lewandowska; Christian Malacaria; Paul S Ray; Wynn C G Ho; Alice K Harding; Takashi Okajima; Zaven Arzoumanian; Keith C Gendreau; Zorawar Wadiasingh; Craig B Markwardt; Yang Soong; Steve Kenyon; Slavko Bogdanov; Walid A Majid; Tolga Güver; Gaurava K Jaisawal; Rick Foster; Yasuhiro Murata; Hiroshi Takeuchi; Kazuhiro Takefuji; Mamoru Sekido; Yoshinori Yonekura; Hiroaki Misawa; Fuminori Tsuchiya; Takahiko Aoki; Munetoshi Tokumaru; Mareki Honma; Osamu Kameya; Tomoaki Oyama; Katsuaki Asano; Shinpei Shibata; Shuta J Tanaka

doi:10.1126/science.abd4659

Enhanced x-ray emission coinciding with giant radio pulses from the Crab Pulsar

Science. 2021 Apr 9;372(6538):187-190. doi: 10.1126/science.abd4659.

Authors

Teruaki Enoto^#¹, Toshio Terasawa^#^{2

3

4}, Shota Kisaka^#^{5

6

7}, Chin-Ping Hu^#^{1

8

9}, Sebastien Guillot¹⁰, Natalia Lewandowska¹¹, Christian Malacaria^{12

13}, Paul S Ray¹⁴, Wynn C G Ho^{11

15}, Alice K Harding^{16

17}, Takashi Okajima¹⁶, Zaven Arzoumanian¹⁶, Keith C Gendreau¹⁶, Zorawar Wadiasingh^{16

18}, Craig B Markwardt¹⁶, Yang Soong¹⁶, Steve Kenyon¹⁶, Slavko Bogdanov¹⁹, Walid A Majid^{20

21}, Tolga Güver²², Gaurava K Jaisawal²³, Rick Foster²⁴, Yasuhiro Murata^{25

26

27}, Hiroshi Takeuchi^{25

27}, Kazuhiro Takefuji^{26

28}, Mamoru Sekido²⁸, Yoshinori Yonekura²⁹, Hiroaki Misawa³⁰, Fuminori Tsuchiya³⁰, Takahiko Aoki³¹, Munetoshi Tokumaru³², Mareki Honma^{33

34

35}, Osamu Kameya^{33

35}, Tomoaki Oyama³³, Katsuaki Asano³⁶, Shinpei Shibata³⁷, Shuta J Tanaka³⁸

Affiliations

¹ Cluster for Pioneering Research, RIKEN, Wako 351-0198, Japan. teruaki.enoto@riken.jp terasawa@icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp kisaka@hiroshima-u.ac.jp cphu0821@cc.ncue.edu.tw.
² Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8582, Japan. teruaki.enoto@riken.jp terasawa@icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp kisaka@hiroshima-u.ac.jp cphu0821@cc.ncue.edu.tw.
³ Mizusawa VLBI Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka 181-8588, Japan.
⁴ Interdisciplinary Theoretical Science Research Group, RIKEN, Wako 351-0198, Japan.
⁵ Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan. teruaki.enoto@riken.jp terasawa@icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp kisaka@hiroshima-u.ac.jp cphu0821@cc.ncue.edu.tw.
⁶ Astronomical Institute, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.
⁷ Department of Physical Science, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan.
⁸ Department of Physics, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua 50007, Taiwan.
⁹ Department of Astronomy, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
¹⁰ Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique, Toulouse 31028, France.
¹¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Haverford College, Haverford, PA 19041, USA.
¹² NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, National Space Science and Technology Center, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA.
¹³ Universities Space Research Association, Science and Technology Institute, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA.
¹⁴ US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA.
¹⁵ Mathematical Sciences and STAG Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK.
¹⁶ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
¹⁷ Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
¹⁸ Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD 21046, USA.
¹⁹ Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
²⁰ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
²¹ California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
²² Istanbul University, Science Faculty, Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences, Beyazıt, 34119 Istanbul, Turkey.
²³ National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327-328, Denmark.
²⁴ Massachusetts Institute of Technology Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
²⁵ Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sagamihara 252-5210, Japan.
²⁶ Usuda Deep Space Center, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Saku 384-0306, Japan.
²⁷ Department of Space and Astronautical Science, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Sagamihara 252-5210, Japan.
²⁸ Kashima Space Technology Center, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Kashima 314-8501, Japan.
²⁹ Center for Astronomy, Ibaraki University, Mito 310-8512, Japan.
³⁰ Planetary Plasma and Atmospheric Research Center, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.
³¹ The Research Institute for Time Studies, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi 753-8511, Japan.
³² Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan.
³³ Mizusawa VLBI Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Oshu 023-0861, Japan.
³⁴ Department of Astronomy, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
³⁵ Department of Astronomical Science, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Mitaka 181-8588, Japan.
³⁶ Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8582, Japan.
³⁷ Department of Physics, Yamagata University, Yamagata 990-8560, Japan.
³⁸ Department of Physics and Mathematics, Aoyama Gakuin University, Sagamihara 252-5258, Japan.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 33833123
DOI: 10.1126/science.abd4659

Abstract

Giant radio pulses (GRPs) are sporadic bursts emitted by some pulsars that last a few microseconds and are hundreds to thousands of times brighter than regular pulses from these sources. The only GRP-associated emission outside of radio wavelengths is from the Crab Pulsar, where optical emission is enhanced by a few percentage points during GRPs. We observed the Crab Pulsar simultaneously at x-ray and radio wavelengths, finding enhancement of the x-ray emission by 3.8 ± 0.7% (a 5.4σ detection) coinciding with GRPs. This implies that the total emitted energy from GRPs is tens to hundreds of times higher than previously known. We discuss the implications for the pulsar emission mechanism and extragalactic fast radio bursts.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't