Speaker
Ms
Alice Borghese
(Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy)
Description
In this talk I would like to report the discovery of a narrow
phase-dependent absorption feature in the X-ray spectrum of the nearby
X-ray Dim Isolated Neutron Star RX J0720.4-3125. This feature was
discovered performing a detailed phase-resolved spectral analysis
using XMM-Newton observations which cover 12 years. The line seems to
be stable in time over this timespan and is present in 20% of the
pulsar rotation. Because of its narrow width and its strong dependency
on the rotational phase, the spectral line is probably due to proton
cyclotron absorption in a ~10^14 G confined magnetic structure (with a
field strength about 7 times the dipolar field of this pulsar).
Primary author
Ms
Alice Borghese
(Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy)
