A radio pulsar phase from SGR J1935+2154 provides clues to the magnetar FRB mechanism

• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adf6198
• Publication Date: 2023-07-28T17:58:35Z
• Authors: Weiwei Zhu; Heng Xu; Dejiang Zhou; Lin Lin; Bojun Wang; Pei Wang; Chunfeng Zhang; Jiarui Niu; Yutong Chen; Chengkui Li; Lingqi Meng; Kejia Lee; Bing Zhang; Yi Feng; Mingyu Ge; Ersin Göğüş; Xing Guan; Jinlin Han; Jinchen Jiang; Peng Jiang; Chryssa Kouveliotou; Di Li; Chenchen Miao; Xueli Miao; Yunpeng Men; Chenghui Niu; Weiyang Wang; Zhengli Wang; Jiangwei Xu; Renxin Xu; Mengyao Xue; Yuanpei Yang; Wenfei Yu; Mao Yuan; Youling Yue; Shuangnan Zhang; Yongkun Zhang
• Keywords: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); 0103 physical sciences; FOS: Physical sciences; Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena; 01 natural sciences; 520

The megajansky radio burst, FRB 20200428, and other bright radio bursts detected from the Galactic source SGR J1935+2154 suggest that magnetars can make fast radio bursts (FRBs), but the emission site and mechanism of FRB-like bursts are still unidentified. Here, we report the emergence of a radio pulsar phase of the magnetar 5 months after FRB 20200428. Pulses were detected in 16.5 hours over 13 days using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope, with luminosities of about eight decades fainter than FRB 20200428. The pulses were emitted in a narrow phase window anti-aligned with the x-ray pulsation profile observed using the x-ray telescopes. The bursts, conversely, appear in random phases. This dichotomy suggests that radio pulses originate from a fixed region within the magnetosphere, but bursts occur in random locations and are possibly associated with explosive events in a dynamically evolving magnetosphere. This picture reconciles the lack of periodicity in cosmological repeating FRBs within the magnetar engine model.