TY - JOUR
T1 - DEEP CHANDRA OBSERVATIONS of the PULSAR WIND NEBULA CREATED by PSR B0355+54
AU - Klingler, Noel
AU - Rangelov, Blagoy
AU - Kargaltsev, Oleg
AU - Pavlov, George G.
AU - Romani, Roger W.
AU - Posselt, Bettina
AU - Slane, Patrick
AU - Temim, Tea
AU - Ng, C. Y.
AU - Bucciantini, Niccolò
AU - Bykov, Andrei
AU - Swartz, Douglas A.
AU - Buehler, Rolf
N1 - Funding Information:
Support for this work was provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through Chandra Award Number G03-14082 issued by the Chandra X-ray Observatory Center, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for and on behalf of the National Aeronautics Space Administration under contract NAS8-03060. The work was also partly supported by NASA grant NNX08AD71G. A.M.B. was supported by RSF grant 16-12-10225.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2016/12/20
Y1 - 2016/12/20
N2 - We report on Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) observations of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) associated with PSR B0355+54 (eight observations with a 395 ks total exposure, performed over an eight month period). We investigated the spatial and spectral properties of the emission coincident with the pulsar, compact nebula (CN), and extended tail. We find that the CN morphology can be interpreted in a way that suggests a small angle between the pulsar spin axis and our line of sight, as inferred from the radio data. On larger scales, emission from the 7′(≈2 pc) tail is clearly seen. We also found hints of two faint extensions nearly orthogonal to the direction of the pulsar's proper motion. The spectrum extracted at the pulsar position can be described with an absorbed power-law + blackbody model. The nonthermal component can be attributed to magnetospheric emission, while the thermal component can be attributed to emission from either a hot spot (e.g., a polar cap) or the entire neutron star surface. Surprisingly, the spectrum of the tail shows only a slight hint of cooling with increasing distance from the pulsar. This implies either a low magnetic field with fast flow speed, or particle reacceleration within the tail. We estimate physical properties of the PWN and compare the morphologies of the CN and the extended tail with those of other bow shock PWNe observed with long CXO exposures.
AB - We report on Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) observations of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) associated with PSR B0355+54 (eight observations with a 395 ks total exposure, performed over an eight month period). We investigated the spatial and spectral properties of the emission coincident with the pulsar, compact nebula (CN), and extended tail. We find that the CN morphology can be interpreted in a way that suggests a small angle between the pulsar spin axis and our line of sight, as inferred from the radio data. On larger scales, emission from the 7′(≈2 pc) tail is clearly seen. We also found hints of two faint extensions nearly orthogonal to the direction of the pulsar's proper motion. The spectrum extracted at the pulsar position can be described with an absorbed power-law + blackbody model. The nonthermal component can be attributed to magnetospheric emission, while the thermal component can be attributed to emission from either a hot spot (e.g., a polar cap) or the entire neutron star surface. Surprisingly, the spectrum of the tail shows only a slight hint of cooling with increasing distance from the pulsar. This implies either a low magnetic field with fast flow speed, or particle reacceleration within the tail. We estimate physical properties of the PWN and compare the morphologies of the CN and the extended tail with those of other bow shock PWNe observed with long CXO exposures.
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U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/833/2/253
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/833/2/253
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85007576248
VL - 833
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
SN - 0004-637X
IS - 2
M1 - 253
ER -