Gemma E. Anderson, B. M. Gaensler, Patrick O. Slane, Nanda Rea, David L. Kaplan, Bettina Posselt, Lina Levin, Simon Johnston, Stephen S. Murray, Crystal L. Brogan, Matthew Bailes, Samuel Bates, Robert A. Benjamin, N. D. Ramesh Bhat, Marta Burgay, Sarah Burke-Spolaor, Deepto Chakrabarty, Nichi D'Amico, Jeremy J. Drake, Paolo Esposito, Jonathan E. Grindlay, Jaesub Hong, G. L. Israel1, Michael J. Keith, Michael Kramer, T. Joseph W. Lazio, Julia C. Lee, Jon C. Mauerhan, Sabrina Milia, Andrea Possenti, Ben Stappers, Danny T. H. Steeghs
We present multi-wavelength observations of the radio magnetar PSR J1622-4950 and its environment. Observations of PSR J1622-4950 with Chandra (in 2007 and 2009) and XMM (in 2011) show that the X-ray flux of PSR J1622-4950 has decreased by a factor of ~50 over 3.7 years, decaying exponentially with a characteristic time of 360 +/- 11 days. This behavior identifies PSR J1622-4950 as a possible addition to the small class of transient magnetars. The X-ray decay likely indicates that PSR J1622-4950 is recovering from an X-ray outburst that occurred earlier in 2007, before the 2007 Chandra observations. Observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array show strong radio variability, including a possible radio flaring event at least one and a half years after the 2007 X-ray outburst that may be a direct result of this X-ray event. Radio observations with the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope reveal that PSR J1622-4950 is 8' southeast of a diffuse radio arc, G333.9+0.0, which appears non-thermal in nature and which could possibly be a previously undiscovered supernova remnant. If G333.9+0.0 is a supernova remnant then the estimates of its size and age, combined with the close proximity and reasonable implied velocity of PSR J1622-4950, suggests that these two objects could be physically associated.
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http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.2719
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