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Register a new userEstimating the birth period of pulsars through GLAST/LAT observations of their wind nebulae
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In this paper we show that the high energy $gamma$-ray flux in the GeV domain from mature pulsar wind nebulae (PWN) scales as the change in rotational kinetic energy $I(Omega_0^2-Omega^2)/2$ since birth, rather than the present day spindown power $IOmegadot{Omega}$. This finding holds as long as the lifetime of inverse Compton emitting electrons exceeds the age of the system. For a typical $gamma^{-2}$ electron spectrum, the predicted flux depends mostly on the pulsar birth period, conversion efficiency of spindown power to relativistic electrons and distance to the PWN, so that first order estimates of the birth period can be assessed from {it GLAST/LAT} observations of PWN. For this purpose we derive an analytical expression. The associated (``uncooled) photon spectral index in the GeV domain is expected to cluster around $sim 1.5$, which is bounded at low energies by an intrinsic spectral break, and at higher energies by a second spectral break where the photon index steepens to $sim 2$ due to radiation losses. Mature PWN are expected to have expanded to sizes larger than currently known PWN, resulting in relatively low magnetic energy densities and hence survival of GeV inverse Compton emitting electrons. Whereas such a PWN may be radio and X-ray quiet in synchrotron radiation, it may still be detectable as a {it GLAST/LAT} source as a result of the relic electrons in the PWN.
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Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWNe) represent the most numerous population of TeV sources in our Galaxy. These sources, some of which emit very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-rays, are believed to be related to the young and energetic pulsars that power highly magnetized nebulae (a few $mu$G to a few hundred $mu$G). In this scenario, particles are accelerated to VHE along their expansion into the pulsar surroundings, or at the shocks produced in collisions of the winds with the surrounding medium. Those energetic pulsars can be traced using observations with the Fermi-LAT detector. The MAGIC Collaboration has carried out deep observations of PWNe around high spin-down power Fermi pulsars. We study the PWN features in the context of the already known TeV PWNe. We present here the analysis accomplished with three selected PWNe: PSR J0631+1036, PSR J1954+2838 and PSR J1958+2845.
The high sensitivity of the Fermi-LAT (Large Area Telescope) offers the first opportunity to study faint and extended GeV sources such as pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). After one year of observation the LAT detected and identified three pulsar wind nebulae: the Crab Nebula, Vela-X and the PWN inside MSH 15-52. In the meantime, the list of LAT detected pulsars increased steadily. These pulsars are characterized by high energy loss rates from ~3 times 10^{33} erg s$^{-1}$ to 5 times 10$^{38}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and are therefore likely to power a PWN. This paper summarizes the search for PWNe in the off-pulse windows of 54 LAT-detected pulsars using 16 months of survey observations. Ten sources show significant emission, seven of these likely being of magnetospheric origin. The detection of significant emission in the off-pulse interval offers new constraints on the gamma-ray emitting regions in pulsar magnetospheres. The three other sources with significant emission are the Crab Nebula, Vela-X and a new pulsar wind nebula candidate associated with the LAT pulsar PSR J1023-5746, coincident with the TeV source HESS J1023-575. We further explore the association between the H.E.S.S. and the Fermi source by modeling its spectral energy distribution. Flux upper limits derived for the 44 remaining sources are used to provide new constraints on famous PWNe that have been detected at keV and/or TeV energies.
The last few years have seen a revolution in very-high gamma-ray astronomy (VHE; E>100 GeV) driven largely by a new generation of Cherenkov telescopes (namely the H.E.S.S. telescope array, the MAGIC and MAGIC-II large telescopes and the VERITAS telescope array). The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project foresees a factor of 5 to 10 improvement in sensitivity above 0.1 TeV, extending the accessible energy range to higher energies up to 100 TeV, in the Galactic cut-off regime, and down to a few tens GeV, covering the VHE photon spectrum with good energy and angular resolution. As a result of the fast development of the VHE field, the number of pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) detected has increased from one PWN in the early 90s to more than two dozen firm candidates today. Also, the low energy threshold achieved and good sensitivity at TeV energies has resulted in the detection of pulsed emission from the Crab Pulsar (or its close environment) opening new and exiting expectations about the pulsed spectra of the high energy pulsars powering PWNe. Here we discuss the physics goals we aim to achieve with CTA on pulsar and PWNe physics evaluating the response of the instrument for different configurations.
We present a statistical study of the non-thermal X-ray emission of 27 young rotation powered pulsars (RPPs) and 24 pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) by using the Chandra and the XMM-Newton observations, which with the high spatial resolutions enable us to spatially resolve pulsars from their surrounding PWNe. We obtain the X-ray luminosities and spectra separately for RPPs and PWNe, and then investigate their distribution and relation to each other as well as the relation with the pulsar rotational parameters. In the pair-correlation analysis we find that: (1) the X-ray (2-10 keV) luminosities of both pulsar and PWN (L_{psr} and L_{pwn}) display a strong correlation with pulsar spin down power Edot and characteristic age, and the scalings resulting from a simple linear fit to the data are L_{psr} propto Edot^{0.92 pm 0.04} and L_{pwn} propto Edot^{1.45 pm 0.08} (68% confidence level), respectively, however, both the fits are not statistically acceptable; (2) L_{psr} also shows a possible weak correlation with pulsar period P and period derivative Pdot, whereas L_{pwn} manifests a similar weak correlation with Pdot only; (3) The PWN photon index Gamma_{pwn} is positively correlated with L_{pwn} and L_{pwn}/Edot. We also found that the PWN X-ray luminosity is typically 1 to 10 times larger than that from the underlying pulsar, and the PWN photon indices span a range of ~1.5 to ~2. The statistic study of PWN spectral properties supports the particle wind model in which the X-ray emitting electrons are accelerated by the termination shock of the wind.
To look for possible phenomenological connections between pulsars timing properties and emissions from pulsar wind nebulae and their pulsars, we studied the power-law component of the X-ray emissions from 35 pulsar wind nebulae which have a detected pulsar in X-rays. Our major results are in the following: (1) The power-law component of the X-ray luminosities, in the energy range from 0.5 keV to 8 keV, of the nebulae and of the pulsar both show a strong correlation with the pulsar spin-down power ($dot{E}$), consistent with earlier studies. However, equally significant correlations with the magnetic field strength at the light cylinder ($B_{rm lc}$) are also found. The similar significance level of the correlations with $dot{E}$ and with $B_{rm lc}$ suggests that not only $dot{E}$ but also $B_{rm lc}$ plays an important role in understanding these power-law emissions. (2) Thermal X-ray emissions are detected in 12 pulsars among the 35 samples. With derived temperature as one additional variable, we found that the photon indices of pulsars non-thermal X-ray power-law spectra can be well described by a linear function of $log P$, $logdot{P}$ and temperature logarithm $log T$. It indicates that the surface temperature of neutron stars plays an important role in determining the energy distribution of the radiating pair plasma in pulsars magnetospheres.
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