A long-period radio transient active for three decades

N. Hurley-Walker (), N. Rea, S. J. McSweeney, B. W. Meyers, E. Lenc, I. Heywood, S. D. Hyman, Y. P. Men, T. E. Clarke, F. Coti Zelati, D. C. Price, C. Horváth, T. J. Galvin, G. E. Anderson, A. Bahramian, E. D. Barr, N. D. R. Bhat, M. Caleb, M. Dall’Ora, D. Martino, S. Giacintucci, J. S. Morgan, K. M. Rajwade, B. Stappers and A. Williams
Additional contact information
N. Hurley-Walker: Curtin University
N. Rea: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
S. J. McSweeney: Curtin University
B. W. Meyers: Curtin University
E. Lenc: CSIRO Space & Astronomy
I. Heywood: University of Oxford
S. D. Hyman: Sweet Briar College
Y. P. Men: Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
T. E. Clarke: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
F. Coti Zelati: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
D. C. Price: Curtin University
C. Horváth: Curtin University
T. J. Galvin: Curtin University
G. E. Anderson: Curtin University
A. Bahramian: Curtin University
E. D. Barr: Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
N. D. R. Bhat: Curtin University
M. Caleb: The University of Sydney
M. Dall’Ora: INAF Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory Naples
D. Martino: INAF Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory Naples
S. Giacintucci: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
J. S. Morgan: Curtin University
K. M. Rajwade: ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
B. Stappers: The University of Manchester
A. Williams: Curtin University

Nature, 2023, vol. 619, issue 7970, 487-490

Abstract: Abstract Several long-period radio transients have recently been discovered, with strongly polarized coherent radio pulses appearing on timescales between tens to thousands of seconds1,2. In some cases, the radio pulses have been interpreted as coming from rotating neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields, known as magnetars; the origin of other, occasionally periodic and less-well-sampled radio transients is still debated3. Coherent periodic radio emission is usually explained by rotating dipolar magnetic fields and pair-production mechanisms, but such models do not easily predict radio emission from such slowly rotating neutron stars and maintain it for extended times. On the other hand, highly magnetic isolated white dwarfs would be expected to have long spin periodicities, but periodic coherent radio emission has not yet been directly detected from these sources. Here we report observations of a long-period (21 min) radio transient, which we have labelled GPM J1839–10. The pulses vary in brightness by two orders of magnitude, last between 30 and 300 s and have quasiperiodic substructure. The observations prompted a search of radio archives and we found that the source has been repeating since at least 1988. The archival data enabled constraint of the period derivative to

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06202-5

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