Do magnetars glitch? : Timing irregularities in anomalous X-ray pulsars

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Abstract
We examine the timing history of several anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs), and find that they exhibit spin down irregularities statistically similar to those of radio pulsars. We propose that these irregularities are simply glitches like those of radio pulsars and fit glitching spin down solutions to the data available for 1E~2259+586, 1E~1048.1-5937 and 4U~0142+61. The inferred magnitude of the glitches ($\Delta \Omega$) is comparable to that exhibited in radio pulsar glitching. With these results we argue that the three AXPs that we studied are isolated neutron stars spinning down by magnetic dipole radiation and powered by a combination of cooling, magnetic field decay and magnetospheric particle bombardment.

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