Rapid spin changes around a magnetar fast radio burst

Chin-Ping Hu; Takuto Narita; Teruaki Enoto; George Younes; Zorawar Wadiasingh; Matthew G Baring; Wynn C G Ho; Sebastien Guillot; Paul S Ray; Tolga Güver; Kaustubh Rajwade; Zaven Arzoumanian; Chryssa Kouveliotou; Alice K Harding; Keith C Gendreau

doi:10.1038/s41586-023-07012-5

Rapid spin changes around a magnetar fast radio burst

Nature. 2024 Feb;626(7999):500-504. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-07012-5. Epub 2024 Feb 14.

Authors

Chin-Ping Hu^#^{1

2}, Takuto Narita³, Teruaki Enoto^#^{4

5}, George Younes^#⁶, Zorawar Wadiasingh^#^{7

8

9}, Matthew G Baring^#¹⁰, Wynn C G Ho¹¹, Sebastien Guillot¹², Paul S Ray¹³, Tolga Güver^{14

15}, Kaustubh Rajwade¹⁶, Zaven Arzoumanian¹⁷, Chryssa Kouveliotou¹⁸, Alice K Harding¹⁹, Keith C Gendreau¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua City, Taiwan. cphu0821@gm.ncue.edu.tw.
² Extreme Natural Phenomena RIKEN Hakubi Research Team, Cluster of Pioneering Research, RIKEN, Wako, Japan. cphu0821@gm.ncue.edu.tw.
³ Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
⁴ Extreme Natural Phenomena RIKEN Hakubi Research Team, Cluster of Pioneering Research, RIKEN, Wako, Japan. enoto.teruaki.2w@kyoto-u.ac.jp.
⁵ Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. enoto.teruaki.2w@kyoto-u.ac.jp.
⁶ Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA. george.a.younes@nasa.gov.
⁷ Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA. zorawar.wadiasingh@nasa.gov.
⁸ Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, USA. zorawar.wadiasingh@nasa.gov.
⁹ Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, USA. zorawar.wadiasingh@nasa.gov.
¹⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
¹¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Haverford College, Haverford, PA, USA.
¹² Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, UPS-OMP, CNRS, CNES, Toulouse, France.
¹³ Space Science Division, US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, USA.
¹⁴ Science Faculty, Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
¹⁵ Observatory Research and Application Center, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
¹⁶ ASTRON, The Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands.
¹⁷ Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
¹⁸ The George Washington University, Washington DC, USA.
¹⁹ Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 38356071
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-07012-5

Abstract

Magnetars are neutron stars with extremely high magnetic fields (≳10¹⁴ gauss) that exhibit various X-ray phenomena such as sporadic subsecond bursts, long-term persistent flux enhancements and variable rotation-period derivative^1,2. In 2020, a fast radio burst (FRB), akin to cosmological millisecond-duration radio bursts, was detected from the Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154 (refs. ^3-5), confirming the long-suspected association between some FRBs and magnetars. However, the mechanism for FRB generation in magnetars remains unclear. Here we report the X-ray observation of two glitches in SGR 1935+2154 within a time interval of approximately nine hours, bracketing an FRB that occurred on 14 October 2022^6,7. Each glitch involved a significant increase in the magnetar's spin frequency, being among the largest abrupt changes in neutron-star rotation^8-10 observed so far. Between the glitches, the magnetar exhibited a rapid spin-down phase, accompanied by an increase and subsequent decline in its persistent X-ray emission and burst rate. We postulate that a strong, ephemeral, magnetospheric wind¹¹ provides the torque that rapidly slows the star's rotation. The trigger for the first glitch couples the star's crust to its magnetosphere, enhances the various X-ray signals and spawns the wind that alters magnetospheric conditions that might produce the FRB.