{
  "id": "1211.0547",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2012-11-02T20:00:08.000Z",
  "updated": "2012-11-02T20:00:08.000Z",
  "title": "Radio Transients from the Accretion Induced Collapse of White Dwarfs",
  "authors": [
    "Anthony L. Piro",
    "S. R. Kulkarni"
  ],
  "comment": "Submitted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 4 pages, 2 figures",
  "categories": [
    "astro-ph.HE",
    "astro-ph.SR"
  ],
  "abstract": "It has long been expected that in some scenarios when a white dwarf (WD) grows to the Chandrasekhar limit, it can undergo an accretion induced collapse (AIC) to form a rapidly rotating neutron star. Nevertheless, the detection of such events has so far evaded discovery, likely because the optical, supernova-like emission is expected to be dim and short-lived. Here we propose a novel signature of AIC: a transient radio source lasting for a few months. Rapid rotation along with flux freezing and dynamo action can grow the WD's magnetic field to magnetar strengths during collapse. The spindown of this newly born magnetar generates a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) within the ~0.001-0.1Msun of ejecta surrounding it. Our calculations show that synchrotron emission from the PWN may be detectable in the radio, even if the magnetar has a rather modest magnetic field of ~2*10^14 G and an initial spin period of ~10 ms. An all-sky survey with a detection limit of 1 mJy at 1.4 GHz would see ~4(f/10^-2) above threshold at any given time, where f is the ratio of the AIC rate to Type Ia supernova rate. A similar scenario may result from binary neutron stars if some mergers produce massive neutron stars rather than black holes. We conclude with a discussion of the detectability of these types of radio sources in an era of facilities with high mapping speeds.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2012-11-02T20:00:08.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "accretion induced collapse",
      "white dwarf",
      "radio transients",
      "type ia supernova rate",
      "radio source"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "publication": {
      "doi": "10.1088/2041-8205/762/2/L17",
      "journal": "The Astrophysical Journal",
      "year": 2013,
      "month": "Jan",
      "volume": 762,
      "number": 2
    },
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 4,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "inspire": 1198069,
      "adsabs": "2013ApJ...762L..17P"
    }
  }
}