McGill.CA / Science / Department of Physics

Long term monitoring of anomalous x-ray pulsars

Fotis Gavriil

McGill

The nature of anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) has been a mystery since the discovery of the first example some 20 years ago. There are currently only 5 confirmed AXPs, I have been observing all 5 on a regular basis as part of a long-term monitoring project using the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). The observational properties of AXPs differ from those of other known pulsars. It is for this reason that they are called anomalous. I will present AXP timing properties, the sources' pulsed flux-time history, pulse morphology histories, as well as phase-resolved spectroscopy. As well discuss what possible constraints our results place on AXP models.

Wednesday, November 14th 2001, 12:30
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, Boardroom (room 104)