Long-period Radio Pulsars: Population Study in the Neutron Star and White Dwarf Rotating Dipole Scenarios

The nature of two recently discovered radio emitters with unusually long periods of 18 minutes (GLEAM-X J1627-52) and 21 minutes (GPM J1839-10) is highly debated. Their bright radio emission resembles that of radio magnetars, but their long periodicities and lack of detection at other wavelengths ch...

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Main Authors: Rea, N., Hurley-Walker, Natasha, Pardo-Araujo, C., Ronchi, M., Graber, V., Coti Zelati, F., de Martino, D., Bahramian, Arash, McSweeney, Sam, Galvin, Tim, Hyman, S.D., Dall’Ora, M.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2024
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT190100231
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/96296
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author Rea, N.
Hurley-Walker, Natasha
Pardo-Araujo, C.
Ronchi, M.
Graber, V.
Coti Zelati, F.
de Martino, D.
Bahramian, Arash
McSweeney, Sam
Galvin, Tim
Hyman, S.D.
Dall’Ora, M.
author_facet Rea, N.
Hurley-Walker, Natasha
Pardo-Araujo, C.
Ronchi, M.
Graber, V.
Coti Zelati, F.
de Martino, D.
Bahramian, Arash
McSweeney, Sam
Galvin, Tim
Hyman, S.D.
Dall’Ora, M.
author_sort Rea, N.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The nature of two recently discovered radio emitters with unusually long periods of 18 minutes (GLEAM-X J1627-52) and 21 minutes (GPM J1839-10) is highly debated. Their bright radio emission resembles that of radio magnetars, but their long periodicities and lack of detection at other wavelengths challenge the neutron star (NS) interpretation. In contrast, long rotational periods are common in white dwarfs (WDs) but, although predicted, dipolar radio emission from isolated magnetic WDs has never been unambiguously observed. In this work, we investigate these long-period objects as potential isolated NS or WD dipolar radio emitters and find that both scenarios pose significant challenges to our understanding of radio emission via pair production in dipolar magnetospheres. We also perform population-synthesis simulations based on dipolar spin-down in both pictures, assuming different initial-period distributions, masses, radii, beaming fractions, and magnetic field prescriptions, to assess their impact on the ultra-long pulsar population. In the NS scenario, we do not expect a large number of ultra-long-period pulsars under any physically motivated (or even extreme) assumptions for the period evolution. On the other hand, in the WD scenario, we can easily accommodate a large population of long-period radio emitters. However, no mechanism can easily explain the production of such bright coherent radio emission in either scenarios.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-962962024-11-25T00:33:51Z Long-period Radio Pulsars: Population Study in the Neutron Star and White Dwarf Rotating Dipole Scenarios Rea, N. Hurley-Walker, Natasha Pardo-Araujo, C. Ronchi, M. Graber, V. Coti Zelati, F. de Martino, D. Bahramian, Arash McSweeney, Sam Galvin, Tim Hyman, S.D. Dall’Ora, M. The nature of two recently discovered radio emitters with unusually long periods of 18 minutes (GLEAM-X J1627-52) and 21 minutes (GPM J1839-10) is highly debated. Their bright radio emission resembles that of radio magnetars, but their long periodicities and lack of detection at other wavelengths challenge the neutron star (NS) interpretation. In contrast, long rotational periods are common in white dwarfs (WDs) but, although predicted, dipolar radio emission from isolated magnetic WDs has never been unambiguously observed. In this work, we investigate these long-period objects as potential isolated NS or WD dipolar radio emitters and find that both scenarios pose significant challenges to our understanding of radio emission via pair production in dipolar magnetospheres. We also perform population-synthesis simulations based on dipolar spin-down in both pictures, assuming different initial-period distributions, masses, radii, beaming fractions, and magnetic field prescriptions, to assess their impact on the ultra-long pulsar population. In the NS scenario, we do not expect a large number of ultra-long-period pulsars under any physically motivated (or even extreme) assumptions for the period evolution. On the other hand, in the WD scenario, we can easily accommodate a large population of long-period radio emitters. However, no mechanism can easily explain the production of such bright coherent radio emission in either scenarios. 2024 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/96296 10.3847/1538-4357/ad165d http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT190100231 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ fulltext
spellingShingle Rea, N.
Hurley-Walker, Natasha
Pardo-Araujo, C.
Ronchi, M.
Graber, V.
Coti Zelati, F.
de Martino, D.
Bahramian, Arash
McSweeney, Sam
Galvin, Tim
Hyman, S.D.
Dall’Ora, M.
Long-period Radio Pulsars: Population Study in the Neutron Star and White Dwarf Rotating Dipole Scenarios
title Long-period Radio Pulsars: Population Study in the Neutron Star and White Dwarf Rotating Dipole Scenarios
title_full Long-period Radio Pulsars: Population Study in the Neutron Star and White Dwarf Rotating Dipole Scenarios
title_fullStr Long-period Radio Pulsars: Population Study in the Neutron Star and White Dwarf Rotating Dipole Scenarios
title_full_unstemmed Long-period Radio Pulsars: Population Study in the Neutron Star and White Dwarf Rotating Dipole Scenarios
title_short Long-period Radio Pulsars: Population Study in the Neutron Star and White Dwarf Rotating Dipole Scenarios
title_sort long-period radio pulsars: population study in the neutron star and white dwarf rotating dipole scenarios
url http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT190100231
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/96296