Oral Presentation

NICER X-ray studies of the magnetar-FRB connections

Author(s): Chin-Ping Hu (National Changhua University of Education), George Younes (NASA/GSFC), Zorawar Wadiasingh (NASA/GSFC), Wynn C. G. Ho (Haverford College), Matthew G. Baring (Rice University), Takuto Narita (Kyoto University), Zaven Arzoumanian (NASA/GSFC), Keith C. Gendreau (NASA/GSFC), Chryssa Kouveliotou (The George Washington University), and NICER M&M group

Presenter: Teruaki Enoto (Kyoto University & RIKEN)

Magnetars, neutron stars with strong magnetic fields, are considered one of the promising candidates for the origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs). The NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR) X-ray telescope on the International Space Station has a large effective area at around 1.5 keV and is an ideal observatory to observe magnetars in quiescence and during their active periods. These advantages of NICER enable rapid follow-up observations of transient sources and FRB-related phenomena. The NICER magnetar and magnetosphere (MM) science group has observed several transient magnetars and FRB-related objects so far. For instance, we detected X-ray enhancement associated with giant radio pulses, a phenomenon similar to FRBs, from the Crab pulsar. Moreover, we performed rapid follow-up observations of the Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154 following each of its recent major outbursts and around times of FRB-like radio bursting activity, culminating in the discovery, in 2022, of twin glitches before and after an FRB-like burst. We review these NICER observations and discuss our future collaboration with BURSTT.