Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2016
Abstract
Despite intensive searches, the only pulsar within 0.1 pc of the central black hole in our Galaxy, Sgr A*, is a radio-loud magnetar. Since magnetars are rare among the Galactic neutron star population, and a large number of massive stars are already known in this region, the Galactic Centre (GC) should harbour a large number of neutron stars. Population syntheses suggest several thousand neutron stars may be present in the GC. Many of these could be highly energetic millisecond pulsars which are also proposed to be responsible for the GC gamma-ray excess. We propose that the presence of a neutron star within 0.03 pc from Sgr A* can be revealed by the shock interactions with the disc around the central black hole. As we demonstrate, these interactions result in observable transient non-thermal X-ray and gamma-ray emission over time-scales of months, provided that the spin-down luminosity of the neutron star is
Digital Commons Citation
Giannios, Dimitrios and Lorimer, Duncan R., "Flares from Galactic Centre pulsars: a new class of X-ray transients?" (2016). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 168.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/168
Source Citation
Giannios, Dimitrios., &Lorimer, Duncan R. (2016). Flares From Galactic Centre Pulsars: A New Class Of X-Ray Transients?. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society - Letters, 459(1), L95-L99. http://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slw041