IIT Guwahati and ISRO Discover New Insights into X-ray Emissions from Pulsars

Researchers from IIT Guwahati and ISRO have made a groundbreaking discovery that challenges existing theories about X-ray emissions from astronomical bodies. Studying the pulsar Swift J0243.6+6124, they found that the polarisation of its X-rays is significantly lower than expected, only around 3%. This surprising result, detected using NASA’s IXPE mission, suggests a need to update current understanding of magnetic fields and X-ray behavior in neutron stars. The findings have been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.