2026A&A...706A..52I

After nearly a decade in quiescence, the accreting millisecond pulsar IGR J17511-3057 displayed a new outburst on 2025 February 11, its third since discovery, following previous activity in 2009 and 2015. We report on an XMM-Newton Target of Opportunity observation performed on 2025 March 4, more than twenty days after the outburst onset. From the X-ray spectrum - which is well described by an absorbed Comptonization model - we estimated an unabsorbed 0.5-10 keV luminosity of L_X ∼ 7 × 10³³ erg s^–1 (assuming a source distance equal to the upper limit of 6.9 kpc). To put this into context, we analyzed an archival Chandra observation performed in 2019, which yielded a quiescent luminosity of L_X, q_ ∼ 2 × 10³² erg s^–1 in the same energy band. Although this comparison indicates that the source was still well above its quiescent level during the XMM-Newton observation, the estimated low luminosity during the late stage of the 2025 outburst would typically place the source in the propeller regime. Nevertheless, we unexpectedly detected coherent X-ray pulsations with an amplitude peaking at ∼42% in the 0.3-3 keV band. We also observed a spectral softening compared to the early stages of the outburst. Finally, we report a 3σ upper limit of 60 μJy beam^–1 on the source flux density at 5.5 GHz from ATCA observations acquired on 2025 April 12, following a decline in the accretion activity, as indicated by our analysis of NICER data from 2025 March 15, which revealed no significant X-ray pulsations at a luminosity level of L_X ∼ 1 × 10³⁴ erg s^–1. We discuss our findings in the context of other accreting millisecond pulsars and draw comparisons with transitional systems in the subluminous disk state.