The detection of variability from the candidate infrared counterpart to the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 1048.1-59371

被引:52
作者
Israel, GL
Covino, S
Stella, L
Campana, S
Marconi, G
Mereghetti, S
Mignani, R
Negueruela, I
Oosterbroek, T
Parmar, AN
Burderi, L
Angelini, L
机构
[1] Osserv Astron Brera, INAF, I-23807 Merate, Lc, Italy
[2] European So Observ, Santiago 19, Chile
[3] CNR, Ist Fis Cosm G Occhialini, I-20133 Milan, Italy
[4] European So Observ, D-85748 Garching, Germany
[5] Univ Alicante, Dept Fis Igegneria Sistemas & Teoria Senales, E-03080 Alicante, Spain
[6] European Space Agcy, Estec, Res & Sci Support Dept, Astrophys Miss Div, NL-2200 AG Noordwijk, Netherlands
[7] NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, High Energy Astrophys Lab, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA
关键词
infrared : stars; pulsars : general; pulsars : individual (1E 1048.1-5937); stars : variables : other; X-rays : stars;
D O I
10.1086/345612
中图分类号
P1 [天文学];
学科分类号
0704 ;
摘要
We report on the detection of variability from the proposed IR counterpart to the anomalous X-ray pulsar (AXP) 1E 1048.1-5937 based on Chandra and ESO optical/IR deep observations carried out in 2001-2002. Within the narrow Chandra uncertainty region for 1E 1048.1-5937, we found only one relatively faint (J = 22.1 +/- 0.3, J-K-s = 2.4) source, while the recently proposed IR counterpart was not detected down to a limiting K-s magnitude of similar to20.7 (3 sigma confidence level). This implies a remarkable IR brightening of this object, DeltaK(s) > 1.3, on a timescale of about 50 days. Although our knowledge of the IR properties of AXPs is rather limited (there is only one other source, 1E 2259+586, for which IR variability has been detected), the observed IR variability of the proposed counterpart strengthens its association with 1E 1048.1-5937. Our results make the IR (and presumably optical) variability a likely common characteristic of AXPs and provide new constraints on this class of objects.
引用
收藏
页码:L143 / L146
页数:4
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