The Fermi-LAT detection of magnetar-like pulsar PSR J1846-0258 at high-energy gamma-rays

We report the detection of the pulsed signal of the radio-quiet magnetar-like pulsar PSRJ1846-0258 in the high-energy gamma-ray data of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi LAT). We produced phase-coherent timing models exploiting RXTE PCA and Swift XRT monitoring data for the post-(magnetar-like) outburst period from 2007 August 28 to 2016 September 4, with independent verification using INTEGRAL ISGRI and Fermi GBM data. Phase-folding barycentric arrival times of selected Fermi LAT events from PSRJ1846-0258 resulted in a 4.2 sigma detection (30-100 MeV) of a broad pulse consistent in shape and aligned in phase with the profiles that we measured with Swift XRT (2.5-10keV), INTEGRAL ISGRI (20-150keV), and Fermi GBM (20-300keV). The pulsed flux (30-100 MeV) is (3.91 +/- 0.97) x 10(-9) photons cm(-2) S-1 MeV-1. Declining significances of the INTEGRAL ISGRI 20-150keV pulse profiles suggest fading of the pulsed hard X-ray emission during the post-outburst epochs. We revisited with greatly improved statistics the timing and spectral characteristics of PSRB1509-58 as measured with the Fermi LAT. The broad-band pulsed emission spectra (from 2keV up to GeV energies) of PSRJ1846-0258 and PSR B1509-58 can be accurately described with similarly curved shapes, with maximum luminosities at 3.5 +/- 1.1 MeV (PSRJ1846-0258) and 2.23 +/- 0.11 MeV (PSRB1509-58). We discuss possible explanations for observational differences between Fermi LAT detected pulsars that reach maximum luminosities at GeV energies, like the second magnetar-like pulsar PSR J1119-6127, and pulsars with maximum luminosities at MeV energies, which might be due to geometric differences rather than exotic physics in high-B fields.