Enhanced x-ray emission coinciding with giant radio pulses from the Crab Pulsar

Giant radio pulses (GRPs) are sporadic bursts emitted by some pulsars that last a few microseconds and are hundreds to thousands of times brighter than regular pulses from these sources. The only GRP-associated emission outside of radio wavelengths is from the Crab Pulsar, where optical emission is enhanced by a few percentage points during GRPs. We observed the Crab Pulsar simultaneously at x-ray and radio wavelengths, finding enhancement of the x-ray emission by 3.8 +/- 0.7% (a 5.4 sigma detection) coinciding with GRPs. This implies that the total emitted energy from GRPs is tens to hundreds of times higher than previously known. We discuss the implications for the pulsar emission mechanism and extragalactic fast radio bursts.

Automated summary

Giant radio pulses (GRPs) are sporadic bursts emitted by some pulsars that are significantly brighter than regular pulses. Research on the Crab Pulsar has shown that X-ray emission is enhanced by a few percentage points during GRPs, indicating that the total energy emitted by GRPs may be much higher than previously thought.