Magnetar-like X-Ray Bursts Suppress Pulsar Radio Emission
Israel, G.; Kerr, M.; Rea, N.; Esposito, P.; Possenti, A.; Lyutikov, M.; Burgay, M.; Scholz, P.; Kaspi, V. M.; Tendulkar, S. P.; Archibald, R. F.; Sarkissian, J.
Canada, Italy, United States, Netherlands, Spain, Australia
Abstract
Rotation-powered pulsars and magnetars are two different observational manifestations of neutron stars: rotation-powered pulsars are rapidly spinning objects that are mostly observed as pulsating radio sources, while magnetars, neutron stars with the highest known magnetic fields, often emit short-duration X-ray bursts. Here, we report simultaneous observations of the high-magnetic-field radio pulsar PSR J1119-6127 at X-ray, with XMM-Newton and NuSTAR, and at radio energies with the Parkes radio telescope, during a period of magnetar-like bursts. The rotationally powered radio emission shuts off coincident with the occurrence of multiple X-ray bursts and recovers on a timescale of ∼70 s. These observations of related radio and X-ray phenomena further solidify the connection between radio pulsars and magnetars and suggest that the pair plasma produced in bursts can disrupt the acceleration mechanism of radio-emitting particles.