The impact of highly magnetic neutron stars in the explosive and transient Universe

Project Information

MAGNESIA

Grant agreement ID: 817661

DOI

10.3030/817661

Project closed

EC signature date 8 February 2019

Start date 1 June 2019

End date 30 November 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 263 148,00

EU contribution

€ 2 263 148,00

Coordinated by

AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - MAGNESIA (The impact of highly magnetic neutron stars in the explosive and transient Universe)

Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2025-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The gravitational wave window is now open. It is then imperative to build quantitative models of neutron stars that use all the available tracers to constrain fundamental physics at the highest densities and magnetic fields. The most magnetic neutron stars, the magnetars, have been recently suggested to be powering a large variety of explosive and transient events. The enormous rotational power at birth, and the magnetic energy they can release via large flares, put the magnetars in the (yet) hand-wavy interpretations of gamma-ray bursts, the early phases of double neutron star mergers, super-luminous supernovae, hypernovae, fast radio bursts, and ultra-luminous X-ray sources. However, despite knowing about 30 magnetars, we are lacking a census of how many we expect within the pulsar population, nor we have robust constraints on their flaring rates. The recent discovery of transient magnetars, of magnetar-like flares from sources with measured low dipolar magnetic fields and from typical radio pulsars, clearly showed that the magnetar census in our Galaxy is largely under-estimated. This hampers our understanding not only of the pulsar and magnetar populations, but also of them as possibly related to many of Universe’s explosive events. MAGNESIA will infer a sound Magnetar Census via an innovative approach that will build the first Pulsar Population Synthesis model able to cope with constraints/limits from multi-band observations, and taking into account 3D magnetic field evolution models and flaring rates for neutron stars. Combining expertise in multi-band observations, numerical modeling, nuclear physics, and computation, MAGNESIA will solve the physics, the observational systematic errors, and the computational challenges that inhibited previous works, to finally constrain the spin period and magnetic field distribution at birth of the neutron star population.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Publication wise we had a very productive year despite having to set-up the group and the working groups in this first period. Between 01/06/2019 and 30/11/2020 we have published the following refereed papers (* are those led by the ERC MAGNESIA group):
Publication wise we had a very productive year despite having to set-up the group and the working groups in this first period. Between 01/06/2019 and 30/11/2021 we have published the following refereed papers (* are those led by the ERC MAGNESIA group):


1. * Coti Zelati F., Hugo B., Torres D. F., ... Rea N., et al. 2021 , A&A 655, 10: ‘Simultaneous X-ray and radio observations of the transitional millisecond pulsar candidate CXOU J110926.4-650224’
2. Wang Z., Kaplan D.L. Murphy T., ... Rea N., et al. 2021 ApJ 920, 45: ‘Discovery of ASKAP J173608.2-321635 as a highly polarized transient point source with the Australian SKA Pathfinder’
3. * Ronchi M., *Graber V., *Garcia A., Rea N., Pons J. 2021 ApJ 916, 100: ‘Analyzing the Galactic Pulsar Distribution with Machine Learning’
4. * Borghese A., Rea N., Turolla R., et al. 2021 MNRAS 504, 5244: ‘The X-ray evolution and geometry of the 2018 outburst of XTE J1810-197’
5. * Coti Zelati F., de Ugarte Postigo A., Russell T., ... Rea N., et al. 2021, A&A 650, 69: ‘Multi- band observations of Swift J0840.7-3516: A new transient ultra-compact X-ray binary candidate’
6. * Coti Zelati F., *Borghese A., Israel G.L. Rea N., et al. 2021 ApJ Letter 907, L34 :‘The new magnetar SGR J1830-0645 in outburst’
7. Israel G.L. Burgay M., Rea N., et al. 2021 ApJ 907, 7: ‘X-ray and radio bursts from the magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408’
8. * Dehman C., *Vigano D., Rea N., Pons J., Perna R., Garcia A. 2020 ApJ Letter 902, L32: ‘On the rate of crustal failures in young magnetars
9. * Borghese A., *Coti Zelati F., Rea N., et al. 2020 ApJ Letter 902, L2: , ‘The X-Ray reactivation of the radio bursting magnetar SGR J1935+2154’
10. Pilia M., Burgay M., Possenti A., ... Rea N., et al. 2020 ApJ Letter 896, L40: ‘The lowest- frequency Fast Radio Bursts: Sardinia Radio Telescope detection of the periodic FRB 180916 at 328 MHz’
11. Esposito P., Rea N., Borghese A., et al. 2020 ApJ Letter 896, L30: ‘A very young radio-loud magnetar’
12. Rea N., Coti Zelati F., Vigano D., et al., 2020 ApJ 894, 159: ‘The X-ray outburst of the Galactic Center magnetar ovser six years with Chandra’
13. de Martino D., Papitto A., Burgay M., Possenti A., Coti Zelati F., Rea N., Torres D. F., Belloni T. M 2020, MNRAS 492, 5607: ‘NuSTAR and Parkes observations of the transitional millisecond pulsar binary XSS J12270-4859 in the rotation-powered state’
14. * Coti Zelati F., *Borgherse A., Rea N., et al., 2020, A&A, 633, A31C: ‘The long-term enhanced brightness of the magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408’
15. Haggard D., Nynka M., Mon B., ... Rea N., et al. 2019, ApJ 886, 96: ‘Chandra spectral and timing analysis of Sgr A∗’s brightest X-Ray flares’
16. * Borghese A., Rea N., Turolla R., Pons J.A. et al. 2019, MNRAS 484, 2931: ‘The multi-outburst activity of the magnetar in Westerlund I’
17. Papitto A., Ambrosino F., Stella L., ... Rea N., et al. 2019, ApJ 882, 104: ‘Pulsating in Unison at Optical and X-Ray Energies: Simultaneous High Time Resolution Observations of the Transitional Millisecond Pulsar PSR J1023+0038’
18. Pizzocaro D., Tiengo A., Mereghetti S., .. Rea N., et al. 2019, A&A 626, 39: ‘Detailed X-ray spectroscopy of the magnetar 1E 2259+586’
19. Esposito P., De Luca A., Turolla R., ... Rea N., et al. 2019, A&A 626, 19: ‘Long X-ray flares from the central source in RCW 103. XMM-Newton and VLT observations in the aftermath of the 2016 outburst’
20. Pintore F., Mereghetti S., Esposito P., ... Rea N., et al. 2019, MNRAS 433, 3832: ‘The 11 yr of low activity of the magnetar XTE J1810-197’
21. * Coti Zelati F., Papitto A., De Martino D. ... Rea N., et al. 2019, A&A 622, 211: ‘Prolonged sub-luminous state of the new transitional pulsar candidate CXOU J110926.4-650224’

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We expect to produce the first big search for pulsars in many archival astronomical databases, a 3D magneto-thermal code able to evolve the B and the kT history of neutron stars from birth to 1 Myr age, and a Population Synthesis code that will use Machine Learning to study the neutron star hidden population in our Galaxy.

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