A New Candidate Magnetar Located Outside the Galactic Plane

Details A New Candidate Magnetar Located Outside the Galactic Plane A New Candidate Magnetar Located Outside the Galactic Plane

2011-08-02

arxiv.org/abs/1108.0697v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

14 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, submitted to ApJ. Comments welcome

Scientific paper

In this paper we present detailed analysis of the transient X-ray source 2XMMi J003833.3+402133 detected by XMM-Newton in January 2008 during a survey of M31. This source has previously been identified as a black hole X-ray binary in M31, but here we argue that the X-ray spectra and timing data are inconsistent with this conclusion. We instead argue that 2XMMi J003833.3+402133 may be a new addition to the rare class of magnetars. The X-ray spectrum is well fitted by either a steep power law plus a blackbody model or a double blackbody model. Prior observations with XMM-Newton, Chandra, Swift and ROSAT spanning 1991 to 2007, as well as an additional Swift observation in 2011, all failed to detect this source. No counterpart was detected in deep optical imaging with the Canada France Hawaii Telescope down to a 3sigma lower limit of g = 26.5 mag. The transient behaviour, X-ray spectrum, and lack of an optical counterpart are all consistent with a magnetar. The derived luminosity and black body emitting radius at the distance of M31 argue against an extragalactic location, implying that it is located within the Milky Way but 22 deg out of the plane. The high Galactic latitude could be explained if 2XMMi J003833.3+402133 were an old magnetar, or if its progenitor was a runaway star that traveled away from the plane prior to going supernova.

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