Hotspot Emission from a Freely Precessing Neutron Star

dc.creatorHeyl, Jeremy S.
dc.creatorHernquist, Lars
dc.date2000-03-31
dc.date2000-04-04
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T01:52:59Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T01:52:59Z
dc.descriptionRecent observations of 1E~161348-5055, the neutron-star candidate at the center of the supernova remnant RCW 103, show that a component of its emission varies sinusoidally with a period of approximately six hours. We argue that this period is what one would expect for a freely precessing neutron star with a spin period of about one second. We produce light curves for a freely precessing neutron star with a hotspot. By a suitable choice of parameters, we obtain light curves which are constant with rotational phase when the flux from the star reaches a maximum. At other phases of the precession, the flux varies as the star rotates but the total flux decreases by a factor of several. These models can explain the behavior observed from 1E~161348-5055 and predict that the spin period should be detectable at minimum flux from sufficiently sensitive measurements.
dc.description11 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0003480
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0003480
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/807
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleHotspot Emission from a Freely Precessing Neutron Star
dc.typetext

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