No Arabic abstract
PSR J0205+6449 is a young rotation-powered pulsar in SNR 3C 58. It is one of only three young (<10,000 year old) pulsars which are so far detected in the radio and the classical X-ray bands, as well as at hard X-rays above 20 keV and at high-energy (>100 MeV) $gamma$-rays. The other two young pulsars are the Crab and PSR B1509-58. Our aim is to derive the timing and spectral characteristics of PSR J0205+6449 over the broad X-ray band from ~0.5 to ~270 keV. We used all publicly available RXTE observations of PSR J0205+6449 to first generate accurate ephemerides over the period September 30, 2000 - March 18, 2006. Next, phase-folding procedures yielded pulse profiles using data from RXTE PCA and HEXTE, and XMM-Newton EPIC PN. While our timing solutions are consistent with earlier results, our work shows sharper structures in the PCA X-ray profile. The X-ray pulse profile consists of two sharp pulses, separated in phase by 0.488(2), which can be described with 2 asymmetric Lorentzians, each with the rising wing steeper than the trailing wing, and full-width-half-maximum 1.41(5) ms and 2.35(22) ms, respectively. We find an indication for a flux increase by a factor ~2, about 3.5 sigma above the time-averaged value, for the second, weaker pulse during a two-week interval, while its pulse shape did not change. The spectrum of the pulsed X-ray emission is of non-thermal origin, exhibiting a power-law shape with photon index Gamma = 1.03(2) over the energy band ~0.5 to ~270 keV. In the energy band covered with the PCA (~3-30 keV) the spectra of the two pulses have the same photon index, namely, 1.04(3) and 1.10(8), respectively.
We report the discovery with the 100 m Green Bank Telescope of 65 ms radio pulsations from the X-ray pulsar J0205+6449 at the center of supernova remnant 3C58, making this possibly the youngest radio pulsar known. From our observations at frequencies of 820 and 1375 MHz, the free electron column density to PSR J0205+6449 is found to be 140.7 +- 0.3 pc/cc. The barycentric pulsar period P and period derivative determined from a phase-coherent timing solution are consistent with the values previously measured from X-ray observations. The averaged radio profile of PSR J0205+6449 consists of one sharp pulse of width ~ 3 ms ~ 0.05 P. The pulsar is an exceedingly weak radio source, with pulse-averaged flux density in the 1400 MHz band of 0.045 mJy and a spectral index of ~ -2.1. Its radio luminosity of ~ 0.5 mJy kpc^2 at 1400 MHz is lower than that of ~ 99% of known pulsars and is the lowest among known young pulsars.
PSR J0205+6449 is a young ({approx} 5400 years), Crab-like pulsar detected in radio and at X and {gamma}-ray energies and has the third largest spin-down flux among known rotation powered pulsars. It also powers a bright synchrotron nebula detected in the optical and X-rays. At a distance of {approx} 3.2 kpc and with an extinction comparable to the Crab, PSR J0205+6449 is an obvious target for optical observations. We observed PSR J0205+6449 with several optical facilities, including 8m class ground-based telescopes, such as the Gemini and the Gran Telescopio Canarias. We detected a point source, at a significance of 5.5{sigma}, of magnitude i {approx} 25.5, at the centre of the optical synchrotron nebula, coincident with the very accurate Chandra and radio positions of the pulsar. Thus, we discovered a candidate optical counterpart to PSR J0205+6449. The pulsar candidate counterpart is also detected in the g ({approx}27.4) band and weakly in the r ({approx}26.2) band. Its optical spectrum is fit by a power law with photon index {Gamma}0 = 1.9{pm}0.5, proving that the optical emission if of non-thermal origin, is as expected for a young pulsar. The optical photon index is similar to the X-ray one ({Gamma}X = 1.77{pm}0.03), although the optical fluxes are below the extrapolation of the X-ray power spectrum. This would indicate the presence of a double spectral break between the X-ray and optical energy range, at variance with what is observed for the Crab and Vela pulsars, but similar to the Large Magellanic Cloud pulsar PSR B0540-69.
We report on sensitive phase-referenced and gated 1.4-GHz VLBI radio observations of the pulsar PSR J0205+6449 in the young pulsar-wind nebula 3C 58, made in 2007 and 2010. We employed a novel technique where the ~105-m Green Bank telescope is used simultaneously to obtain single-dish data used to determine the pulsars period as well as to obtain the VLBI data, allowing the VLBI correlation to be gated synchronously with the pulse to increase the signal-to-noise. The high timing noise of this young pulsar precludes the determination of the proper motion from the pulsar timing. We derive the position of the pulsar accurate at the milliarcsecond level, which is consistent with a re-determined position from the Chandra X-ray observations. We reject the original tentative optical identification of the pulsar by Shearer and Neustroev (2008), but rather identify a different optical counterpart on their images, with R-band magnitude ~24. We also determine an accurate proper motion for PSR J0205+6449 of (2.3 +- 0.3) mas/yr, corresponding to a projected velocity of only (35 +- 6) km/s for a distance of 3.2 kpc, at p.a. -38 deg. This projected velocity is quite low compared to the velocity dispersion of known pulsars of ~200 km/s. Our measured proper motion does not suggest any particular kinematic age for the pulsar.
NuSTAR observed G1.9+0.3, the youngest known supernova remnant in the Milky Way, for 350 ks and detected emission up to $sim$30 keV. The remnants X-ray morphology does not change significantly across the energy range from 3 to 20 keV. A combined fit between NuSTAR and CHANDRA shows that the spectrum steepens with energy. The spectral shape can be well fitted with synchrotron emission from a power-law electron energy distribution with an exponential cutoff with no additional features. It can also be described by a purely phenomenological model such as a broken power-law or a power-law with an exponential cutoff, though these descriptions lack physical motivation. Using a fixed radio flux at 1 GHz of 1.17 Jy for the synchrotron model, we get a column density of N$_{rm H}$ = $(7.23pm0.07) times 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$, a spectral index of $alpha=0.633pm0.003$, and a roll-off frequency of $ u_{rm rolloff}=(3.07pm0.18) times 10^{17}$ Hz. This can be explained by particle acceleration, to a maximum energy set by the finite remnant age, in a magnetic field of about 10 $mu$G, for which our roll-off implies a maximum energy of about 100 TeV for both electrons and ions. Much higher magnetic-field strengths would produce an electron spectrum that was cut off by radiative losses, giving a much higher roll-off frequency that is independent of magnetic-field strength. In this case, ions could be accelerated to much higher energies. A search for $^{44}$Ti emission in the 67.9 keV line results in an upper limit of $1.5 times 10^{-5}$ $,mathrm{ph},mathrm{cm}^{-2},mathrm{s}^{-1}$ assuming a line width of 4.0 keV (1 sigma).
We present broad-band X-ray spectroscopy of the energetic components that make up the supernova remnant (SNR) Kesteven 75 using concurrent 2017 Aug 17-20 XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations, during which the pulsar PSR J1846-0258 is found to be in the quiescent state. The young remnant hosts a bright pulsar wind nebula powered by the highly-energetic (Edot = 8.1E36 erg/s) isolated, rotation-powered pulsar, with a spin-down age of only P/2Pdot ~ 728 yr. Its inferred magnetic field (Bs = 4.9E13 G) is the largest known for these objects, and is likely responsible for intervals of flare and burst activity, suggesting a transition between/to a magnetar state. The pulsed emission from PSR J1846-0258 is well-characterized in the 2-50 keV range by a power-law model with photon index Gamma_PSR = 1.24+/-0.09 and a 2-10 keV unabsorbed flux of (2.3+/-0.4)E-12 erg/s/cm^2). We find no evidence for an additional non-thermal component above 10 keV in the current state, as would be typical for a magnetar. Compared to the Chandra pulsar spectrum, the intrinsic pulsed fraction is 71+/-16% in 2-10 keV band. A power-law spectrum for the PWN yields Gamma_PWN = 2.03+/-0.03 in the 1-55 keV band, with no evidence of curvature in this range, and a 2-10 keV unabsorbed flux (2.13+/-0.02)E-11 erg/s/cm^2. The NuSTAR data reveal evidence for a hard X-ray component dominating the SNR spectrum above 10 keV which we attribute to a dust-scattered PWN component. We model the dynamical and radiative evolution of the Kes 75 system to estimate the birth properties of the neutron star, the energetics of its progenitor, and properties of the PWN. This suggests that the progenitor of Kes 75 was originally in a binary system which transferred most its mass to a companion before exploding.