DOI: 10.1126/science.1149056. Polarized Gamma-Ray Emission from the Crab

Polarized Gamma-Ray Emission from the Crab

10.1126/science.1149056

Crossref journal-article

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Science (221)

Abstract

Pulsar systems accelerate particles to immense energies. The detailed functioning of these engines is still poorly understood, but polarization measurements of high-energy radiation may allow us to locate where the particles are accelerated. We have detected polarized gamma rays from the vicinity of the Crab pulsar using data from the spectrometer on the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory satellite. Our results show polarization with an electric vector aligned with the spin axis of the neutron star, demonstrating that a substantial fraction of the high-energy electrons responsible for the polarized photons are produced in a highly ordered structure close to the pulsar.

Bibliography

Dean, A. J., Clark, D. J., Stephen, J. B., McBride, V. A., Bassani, L., Bazzano, A., Bird, A. J., Hill, A. B., Shaw, S. E., & Ubertini, P. (2008). Polarized Gamma-Ray Emission from the Crab. Science, 321(5893), 1183â1185.

Authors 10

A. J. Dean (first)
D. J. Clark (additional)
J. B. Stephen (additional)
V. A. McBride (additional)
L. Bassani (additional)
A. Bazzano (additional)
A. J. Bird (additional)
A. B. Hill (additional)
S. E. Shaw (additional)
P. Ubertini (additional)

References 29 Referenced 172

10.1086/312733
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A. J. Birdet al., Astrophys. J.170 (suppl.), 175 (2007). (10.1086/513148) / Astrophys. J. (2007)
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G. Kanbach, A. Slowikowska, S. Kellner, H. Steinle, Am. Inst. Phys. Conf. Proc.801, 306K (2005). / Am. Inst. Phys. Conf. Proc. (2005)
10.1023/A:1005027107614
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10.1086/506587
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10.1051/0004-6361:20065351
The authors thank C. Jordain and P. Dubath for supplying Crab ephemeris data and the University of Southampton for the use of their Iridis 2 Beowulf Cluster. This paper is based on observations with INTEGRAL an ESA project with instruments and science data center funded by ESA member states (especially the principal investigator countries: Denmark France Germany Italy Switzerland and Spain) the Czech Republic and Poland and with the participation of Russia and the United States. This work was supported by the Italian Space Agency with contract I/R/008/07/0 and in the United Kingdom by Science and Technology Funding Council grant PP/C000714/1.

Dates

Type	When
Created	16 years, 11 months ago (Sept. 2, 2008, 4:24 p.m.)
Deposited	1 year, 7 months ago (Jan. 10, 2024, 4:22 a.m.)
Indexed	4 months, 1 week ago (April 15, 2025, 1:46 p.m.)
Issued	16 years, 11 months ago (Aug. 29, 2008)
Published	16 years, 11 months ago (Aug. 29, 2008)
Published Print	16 years, 11 months ago (Aug. 29, 2008)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Dean_2008, title={Polarized Gamma-Ray Emission from the Crab}, volume={321}, ISSN={1095-9203}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1149056}, DOI={10.1126/science.1149056}, number={5893}, journal={Science}, publisher={American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}, author={Dean, A. J. and Clark, D. J. and Stephen, J. B. and McBride, V. A. and Bassani, L. and Bazzano, A. and Bird, A. J. and Hill, A. B. and Shaw, S. E. and Ubertini, P.}, year={2008}, month=aug, pages={1183–1185} }

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