No Arabic abstract
Pulsars associated with supernova remnants (SNRs) are valuable because they provide constraints on the mechanism(s) of pulsar spin-down. Here we discuss two SNR/pulsar associations in which the SNR age is much greater than the age of the pulsar obtained by assuming pure magnetic dipole radiation (MDR) spin-down. The PSR B1757-24/SNR G5.4-1.2 association has a minimum age of ~40 kyr from proper motion upper limits, yet the MDR timing age of the pulsar is only 16 kyr, and the newly discovered pulsar PSR J1846-0258 in the >2 kyr old SNR Kes 75 has an MDR timing age of just 0.7 kyr. These and other pulsar/SNR age discrepancies imply that the pulsar spin-down torque is not due to pure MDR, and we discuss a model for the spin-down of the pulsars similar to the ones recently proposed to explain the spin-down of soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous x-ray pulsars.
Anomalous X-ray Pulsars and Soft-Gamma Repeaters groups are magnetar candidates featuring low characteristic ages ($tau = {Pover{2 {dot P}}}$). At least some of them they should still be associated with the remnants of the explosive events in which they were born, giving clues to the type of events leading to their birth and the physics behind the apparent high value of the magnetar magnetic fields. To explain the high values of $B$, a self-consistent picture of field growth also suggests that energy injection into the SNR is large and unavoidable, in contrast with the evolution of {it conventional} SNR. This modified dynamics, in turn, has important implications for the proposed associations. We show that this scenario yields low ages for the new candidates CXOU J171405.7-381031/CTB 37B and XMMU J173203.3-344518/G353.6-0.7, and predicted values agree with recently found ${dot P}$, giving support to the overall picture.
We present observations with the Chandra X-ray Observatory of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) within the supernova remnant G0.9+0.1. At Chandras high resolution, the PWN has a clear axial symmetry; a faint X-ray point source lying along the symmetry axis possibly corresponds to the pulsar itself. We argue that the nebular morphology can be explained in terms of a torus of emission in the pulsars equatorial plane and a jet directed along the pulsar spin axis, as is seen in the X-ray nebulae powered by other young pulsars. A bright clump of emission within the PWN breaks the axisymmetry and may correspond to an intermediate-latitude feature in the pulsar wind.
We present a measurement of the proper motion of the presumed pulsar in the evolved composite supernova remnant (SNR) MSH 15-56 whose pulsar wind nebula (PWN) has been disrupted by the supernova (SN) reverse shock. Using Chandra X-ray observations acquired over a baseline of 15 years, we measure a pulsar velocity of 720 (+290/-215) km/s and a direction of motion of 14 +/- 22 degrees west of south. We use this measurement to constrain a hydrodynamical model for the evolution of this system and find that its morphology is well-described by an SNR expanding in an ambient density gradient that increases from east to west. The effect of the density gradient and the pulsars motion is an asymmetric interaction between the SN reverse shock and the PWN that displaces the bulk of the PWN material away from the pulsar, towards the northeast. The simulation is consistent with an SNR age of 11,000 years, an SN ejecta mass of 10 solar masses, and an average surrounding density of 0.4 cm^-3. However, a combination of a higher SN ejecta mass and ambient density can produce a similar SNR morphology at a later age.
We investigate the age constraints that can be placed on the double pulsar system using models for the spin-down of the first-born 22.7-ms pulsar A and the 2.77-s pulsar B with characteristic ages of 210 and 50 Myr respectively. Standard models assuming dipolar spin-down of both pulsars suggest that the time since the formation of B is ~50 Myr, i.e. close to Bs characteristic age. However, adopting models which account for the impact of As relativistic wind on Bs spin-down we find that the formation of B took place either 80 or 180 Myr ago, depending the interaction mechanism. Formation 80 Myr ago, closer to Bs characteristic age, would result in the contribution from J0737-3039 to the inferred coalescence rates for double neutron star binaries increasing by 40%. The 180 Myr age is closer to As characteristic age and would be consistent with the most recent estimates of the coalescence rate. The new age constraints do not significantly impact recent estimates of the kick velocity, tilt angle between pre and post-supernova orbital planes or pre-supernova mass of Bs progenitor.
We report new high resolution and high sensitivity radio observations of the extended supernova remnant (SNR) CTB 80 (G69.0+2.7) at 240 MHz, 324 MHz, 618 MHz, and 1380 MHz. The imaging of CTB 80 at 240 MHz and 618 MHz was performed using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India. The observations at 324 MHz and 1380 MHz were obtained using the Very Large Array (VLA, NRAO) in its C and D configurations. The new radio images reveal faint extensions for the asymmetric arms of CTB 80. The arms are irregular with filaments and clumps of size 1 (or 0.6 pc at a distance of 2 kpc). The radio image at 1380 MHz is compared with IR and optical emission. The correspondence IR/radio is excellent along the N arm of CTB 80. Ionized gas observed in the [SII] line perfectly matches the W and N edges of CTB 80. The central nebula associated with the pulsar PSR B1951+32 was investigated with an angular resolution of 10 x 6. The new radio image obtained at 618 MHz shows with superb detail structures in the 8 x 4 E-W ``plateau nebula that hosts the pulsar on its western extreme. A twisted filament, about 6 in extent (~3.5 pc), trails behind the pulsar in an approximate W-E direction. In the bright ``core nebula (size ~45), located to the W of the plateau, the images show a distortion in the morphology towards the W; this feature corresponds to the direction in which the pulsar escapes from the SNR with a velocity of ~240 km/s. Based on the new observations, the energetics of the SNR and of the PWN are investigated.