Detection of X-ray emission from a bright long-period radio transient.

Abstract

Recently, a class of long-period radio transients (LPTs) has been discovered, exhibiting emission thousands of times longer than radio pulsars^1-5. These findings, enabled by advances in wide-field radio surveys, challenge existing models of rotationally powered pulsars. Proposed models include highly magnetized neutron stars⁶, white-dwarf pulsars⁷ and white-dwarf binary systems with low-mass companions⁸. Although some models predict X-ray emission^6,9, no LPTs have been detected in X-rays despite extensive searches^1-5,10. Here we report the discovery of an extremely bright LPT (10-20 Jy in radio), ASKAP J1832-0911, which has coincident radio and X-ray emission, both with a 44.2-minute period. Its correlated and highly variable X-ray and radio luminosities, combined with other observational properties, are unlike any known Galactic object. The source could be an old magnetar or an ultra-magnetized white dwarf; however, both interpretations present theoretical challenges. This X-ray detection from an LPT reveals that these objects are more energetic than previously thought and establishes a class of hour-scale periodic X-ray transients with a luminosity of about 10³³ erg s^-1 linked to exceptionally bright coherent radio emission.