37 research outputs found
Direct Measurement of Neutron-Star Recoil in the Oxygen-Rich Supernova Remnant Puppis A
A sequence of three Chandra X-ray Observatory High Resolution Camera images
taken over a span of five years reveals arc-second-scale displacement of RX
J0822-4300, the stellar remnant (presumably a neutron star) near the center of
the Puppis A supernova remnant. We measure its proper motion to be
0.165+/-0.025 arcsec/yr toward the west-southwest. At a distance of 2 kpc, this
corresponds to a transverse space velocity of ~1600 km/s. The space velocity is
consistent with the explosion center inferred from proper motions of the
oxygen-rich optical filaments, and confirms the idea that Puppis A resulted
from an asymmetric explosion accompanied by a kick that imparted roughly
3*10^49 ergs of kinetic energy (some 3 percent of the kinetic energy for a
typical supernova) to the stellar remnant. We discuss constraints on
core-collapse supernova models that have been proposed to explain neutron star
kick velocities
Proper Motions of PSRs B1757-24 and B1951+32: Implications for Ages and Associations
Over the last decade, considerable effort has been made to measure the proper
motions of the pulsars B1757-24 and B1951+32 in order to establish or refute
associations with nearby supernova remnants and to understand better the
complicated geometries of their surrounding nebulae. We present proper motion
measurements of both pulsars with the Very Large Array, increasing the time
baselines of the measurements from 3.9 yr to 6.5 yr and from 12.0 yr to 14.5
yr, respectively, compared to previous observations. We confirm the
non-detection of proper motion of PSR B1757-24, and our measurement of (mu_a,
mu_d) = (-11 +/- 9, -1 +/- 15) mas yr^{-1} confirms that the association of PSR
B1757-24 with SNR G5.4-1.2 is unlikely for the pulsar characteristic age of
15.5 kyr, although an association can not be excluded for a significantly
larger age. For PSR B1951+32, we measure a proper motion of (mu_a, mu_d) =
(-28.8 +/- 0.9, -14.7 +/- 0.9) mas yr^{-1}, reducing the uncertainty in the
proper motion by a factor of two compared to previous results. After correcting
to the local standard of rest, the proper motion indicates a kinetic age of ~51
kyr for the pulsar, assuming it was born near the geometric center of the
supernova remnant. The radio-bright arc of emission along the pulsar proper
motion vector shows time-variable structure, but moves with the pulsar at an
approximately constant separation ~2.5", lending weight to its interpretation
as a shock structure driven by the pulsar.Comment: LaTeX file uses emulateapj.cls; 7 pages, 4 figures, to be published
ApJ February 10, 2008, v674 p271-278. Revision reflects journal formatting;
there are no substantial revision
Bow Shocks from Neutron Stars: Scaling Laws and HST Observations of the Guitar Nebula
The interaction of high-velocity neutron stars with the interstellar medium
produces bow shock nebulae, where the relativistic neutron star wind is
confined by ram pressure. We present multi-wavelength observations of the
Guitar Nebula, including narrow-band H-alpha imaging with HST/WFPC2, which
resolves the head of the bow shock. The HST observations are used to fit for
the inclination of the pulsar velocity vector to the line of sight, and to
determine the combination of spindown energy loss, velocity, and ambient
density that sets the scale of the bow shock. We find that the velocity vector
is most likely in the plane of the sky. We use the Guitar Nebula and other
observed neutron star bow shocks to test scaling laws for their size and
H-alpha emission, discuss their prevalence, and present criteria for their
detectability in targeted searches. The set of H-alpha bow shocks shows
remarkable consistency, in spite of the expected variation in ambient densities
and orientations. Together, they support the assumption that a pulsar's
spindown energy losses are carried away by a relativistic wind that is
indistinguishable from being isotropic. Comparison of H-alpha bow shocks with
X-ray and nonthermal, radio-synchrotron bow shocks produced by neutron stars
indicates that the overall shape and scaling is consistent with the same
physics. It also appears that nonthermal radio emission and H-alpha emission
are mutually exclusive in the known objects and perhaps in all objects.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures (3 degraded), submitted to ApJ; minor revisions
and updates in response to referee report. (AASTeX, includes emulateapj5 and
onecolfloat5.
Birth Kick Distributions and the Spin-Kick Correlation of Young Pulsars
Evidence from pulsar wind nebula symmetry axes and radio polarization
observations suggests that pulsar motions correlate with the spin directions.
We assemble this evidence for young isolated pulsars and show how it can be
used to quantitatively constrain birth kick scenarios. We illustrate by
computing several plausible, but idealized, models where the momentum thrust is
proportional to the neutrino cooling luminosity of the proto-neutron star. Our
kick simulations include the effects of pulsar acceleration and spin-up and our
maximum likelihood comparison with the data constrains the model parameters.
The fit to the pulsar spin and velocity measurements suggests that: i) the
anisotropic momentum required amounts to ~10% of the neutrino flux, ii) while a
pre-kick spin of the star is required, the preferred magnitude is small
10-20rad/s, so that for the best-fit models iii) the bulk of the spin is
kick-induced with ~120rad/s and iv) the models suggest that the
anisotropy emerges on a timescale ~1-3s.Comment: 37 pages, 13 figures, ApJ accepte
The Radial Structure of SNR N103B
We report on the results from a Chandra ACIS observation of the young,
compact, supernova remnant N103B. The unprecedented spatial resolution of
Chandra reveals sub-arcsecond structure, both in the brightness and in spectral
variations. Underlying these small-scale variations is a surprisingly simple
radial structure in the equivalent widths of the strong Si and S emission
lines. We investigate these radial variations through spatially resolved
spectroscopy using a plane-parallel, non-equilibrium ionization model with
multiple components. The majority of the emission arises from components with a
temperature of 1 keV: a fully ionized hydrogen component; a high ionization
timescale (n_e*t > 10^12 s cm^-3) component containing Si, S, Ar, Ca, and Fe;
and a low ionization timescale (n_e*t ~ 10^{11} s cm^-3) O, Ne, and Mg
component. To reproduce the strong Fe Kalpha line, it is necessary to include
additional Fe in a hot (> 2 keV), low ionization (n_e*t ~ 10^10.8 s cm^-3)
component. This hot Fe may be in the form of hot Fe bubbles, formed in the
radioactive decay of clumps of 56Ni. We find no radial variation in the
ionization timescales or temperatures of the various components. Rather, the Si
and S equivalent widths increase at large radii because these lines, as well as
those of Ar and Ca, are formed in a shell occupying the outer half of the
remnant. A shell of hot Fe is located interior to this, but there is a large
region of overlap between these two shells. In the inner 30% of the remnant,
there is a core of cooler, 1 keV Fe. We find that the distribution of the
ejecta and the yields of the intermediate mass species are consistent with
model prediction for Type Ia events.Comment: 34 pages, including 7 tables and 7 figures, Accepted by Ap
Fitting Pulsar Wind Tori
CXO imaging has shown that equatorial tori, often with polar jets, are very
common in young pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). These structures are interesting
both for what they reveal about the relativistic wind itself and for the
(nearly) model-independent measurement of the neutron star spin orientation
they provide. The later is a particularly valuable probe of pulsar emission
models and of neutron star physics.We describe here a procedure for fitting
simple 3-D torus models to the X-ray data which provides robust estimates of
the geometric parameters. An application to 6 PWN tori gives orientations, PWN
shock scales and post-shock wind speeds along with statistical errors. We
illustrate the use of these data by commenting on the implications for kick
physics and for high energy beaming models.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures; to appear in the Astrophysical Journa
Precision Southern Hemisphere pulsar VLBI astrometry: techniques and results for PSR J1559-4438
We describe a data reduction pipeline for VLBI astrometric observations of
pulsars, implemented using the ParselTongue AIPS interface. The pipeline
performs calibration (including ionosphere modeling), phase referencing with
proper accounting of reference source structure, amplitude corrections for
pulsar scintillation, and position fitting to yield the position, proper motion
and parallax. The optimal data weighting scheme to minimize the total error
budget of a parallax fit, and how this scheme varies with pulsar parameters
such as flux density, is also investigated. The robustness of the techniques
employed are demonstrated with the presentation of the first results from a two
year astrometry program using the Australian Long Baseline Array (LBA). The
parallax of PSR J1559-4438 is determined to be 0.384 +- 0.081 mas (1 sigma),
resulting in a distance estimate of 2600 pc which is consistent with earlier DM
and HI absorption estimates.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Ap
The Duck Redux: An Improved Proper Motion Upper Limit for the Pulsar B1757-24 Near the Supernova Remnant G5.4-1.2
"The Duck" is a complicated non-thermal radio system, consisting of the
energetic radio pulsar B1757-24, its surrounding pulsar wind nebula G5.27-0.90
and the adjacent supernova remnant (SNR) G5.4-1.2. PSR B1757-24 was originally
claimed to be a young (~15 000 yr) and extreme velocity (>~1500 km/s) pulsar
which had penetrated and emerged from the shell of the associated SNR G5.4-1.2,
but recent upper limits on the pulsar's motion have raised serious difficulties
with this interpretation. We here present 8.5 GHz interferometric observations
of the nebula G5.27-0.90 over a 12-year baseline, doubling the time-span of
previous measurements. These data correspondingly allow us to halve the
previous upper limit on the nebula's westward motion to 14 milliarcseconds/yr
(5-sigma), allowing a substantive reevaluation of this puzzling object. We rule
out the possibility that the pulsar and SNR were formed from a common supernova
explosion ~15 000 yrs ago as implied by the pulsar's characteristic age, but
conclude that an old (>~70 000 yr) pulsar / SNR association, or a situation in
which the pulsar and SNR are physically unrelated, are both still viable
explanations.Comment: 9 pages, including 1 color and 1 B/W figure. Minor changes following
referee's report. ApJ, in pres
Proper Motion Measurements of Pulsar B1951+32 in the Supernova Remnant CTB 80
Using the Very Large Array and the Pie Town antenna, we have measured the position of the radio pulsar B1951+32 relative to nearby background radio sources at four epochs between 1989 and 2000. These data show a clear motion for the pulsar of (25 +/- 4) milliarcsec/yr at a position angle (252 +/- 7) degrees (north through east), corresponding to a transverse velocity (240 +/- 40) km/s for a distance to the source of 2 kpc. The measured direction of motion confirms that the pulsar is moving away from the center of its associated supernova remnant, the first time that such a result has been demonstrated. Independent of assumptions made about the pulsar birth-place, we show that the measured proper motion implies an age for the pulsar of (64 +/- 18) kyr, somewhat less than its characteristic age of 107 kyr. This discrepancy can be explained if the initial spin period of the pulsar was (27 +/- 6) ms
The properties of the putative pulsar associated with IGR J18135-1751/HESS J1813-178
Context: We investigate the possible theoretical properties of the putative
pulsar associated with the pulsar wind nebula IGR J18135-1751/HESS J1813-178
based upon recent gamma-ray observations and archival multi-wavelength
observations. Aims: We show that when using the standard equations for magnetic
dipole radiation with recent soft gamma-ray observations leads to deriving an
extreme set of parameters (magnetic field, period and spin down rate) for the
putative pulsar. Alternative scenarios that generate more typical parameter
values are explored. Methods: The properties of the putative pulsar are
calculated assuming that the 20-100 keV luminosity corresponds to 1% of Edot,
that the source is 4.5 kpc away, and that the pulsar age is 300 yrs. This gives
P = 0.55 s, Pdot = 3E-11 s/s, and B = 1.28E14 G. This is a very extreme set
compared to the population of known pulsars in PWN systems. Using the equations
for magnetic dipole losses makes it possible to adjust the initial assumptions
to see what is required for a more reasonable set of pulsar parameters.
Results: The current measured properties for IGR J18135-1751/HESS J1813-178
(i.e. luminosity, distance, and age) result in extreme properties of the unseen
pulsar within the PWN. The simplest method for achieving more reasonable
properties for the pulsar is to decouple the spin-down age of the pulsar from
the actual age for the system.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication as a Research Note in
Astronomy & Astrophysic