An extremely bright gamma-ray pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Fermi LAT Collaboration

doi:10.1126/science.aac7400

An extremely bright gamma-ray pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Science. 2015 Nov 13;350(6262):801-5. doi: 10.1126/science.aac7400.

Author

Fermi LAT Collaboration

Collaborators

Fermi LAT Collaboration:
M Ackermann, A Albert, L Baldini, J Ballet, G Barbiellini, C Barbieri, D Bastieri, R Bellazzini, E Bissaldi, R Bonino, E Bottacini, T J Brandt, J Bregeon, P Bruel, R Buehler, G A Caliandro, R A Cameron, P A Caraveo, C Cecchi, E Charles, A Chekhtman, C C Cheung, J Chiang, G Chiaro, S Ciprini, J Cohen-Tanugi, A Cuoco, S Cutini, F D'Ammando, F de Palma, R Desiante, S W Digel, L Di Venere, P S Drell, C Favuzzi, S J Fegan, E C Ferrara, A Franckowiak, S Funk, P Fusco, F Gargano, D Gasparrini, N Giglietto, F Giordano, G Godfrey, I A Grenier, M-H Grondin, J E Grove, L Guillemot, S Guiriec, K Hagiwara, A K Harding, E Hays, J W Hewitt, A B Hill, D Horan, T J Johnson, J Knödlseder, M Kuss, S Larsson, L Latronico, M Lemoine-Goumard, J Li, L Li, F Longo, F Loparco, M N Lovellette, P Lubrano, S Maldera, A Manfreda, F Marshall, P Martin, M Mayer, M N Mazziotta, P F Michelson, N Mirabal, T Mizuno, M E Monzani, A Morselli, I V Moskalenko, S Murgia, G Naletto, E Nuss, T Ohsugi, M Orienti, E Orlando, D Paneque, M Pesce-Rollins, F Piron, G Pivato, T A Porter, S Rainò, R Rando, M Razzano, A Reimer, O Reimer, T Reposeur, R W Romani, P M Saz Parkinson, A Schulz, C Sgrò, E J Siskind, D A Smith, F Spada, G Spandre, P Spinelli, D J Suson, H Takahashi, J B Thayer, D J Thompson, L Tibaldo, D F Torres, Y Uchiyama, G Vianello, K S Wood, M Wood, L Zampieri

PMID: 26564852
DOI: 10.1126/science.aac7400

Abstract

Pulsars are rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron stars, created in the gravitational collapse of massive stars. We report the detection of pulsed giga-electron volt gamma rays from the young pulsar PSR J0540-6919 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. This is the first gamma-ray pulsar detected in another galaxy. It has the most luminous pulsed gamma-ray emission yet observed, exceeding the Crab pulsar's by a factor of 20. PSR J0540-6919 presents an extreme test case for understanding the structure and evolution of neutron star magnetospheres.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.