We report on a discovery of a diffuse nebula containing a pointlike source in the southern blowout region of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant, based on Suzaku and XMM-Newton observations. The X-ray spectra from the nebula and the pointlike source are well represented by an absorbed power-law model with photon indices of 2.2+/-0.1 and 1.6+/-0.2, respectively. The photon indices as well as the flux ratio of F_nebula/F_pointlike ~ 4 lead us to propose that the system is a pulsar wind nebula, although pulsations have not yet been detected. If we attribute its origin to the Cygnus Loop supernova, then the 0.5-8 keV luminosity of the nebula is computed to be 2.1e31 (d/540pc)^2 ergs/s, where d is the distance to the Loop. This implies a spin-down loss-energy E_dot ~ 2.6e35 (d/540pc)^2 ergs/s. The location of the neutron star candidate, ~2 degrees away from the geometric center of the Loop, implies a high transverse velocity of ~1850 (d/540pc)(t/10kyr)^{-1} km/s, assuming the currently accepted age of the Cygnus Loop.
The Cygnus\,OB2 region, $\sim 3.5-5~\text{Myr}$ old, contains one of the most significant populations of massive stars of the Milky Way. Such stars substantially contribute to producing large scale soft ($<2~\text{keV}$) diffuse X-ray emission. We also detected hard ($>3~\text{keV}$) diffuse X-ray emission in the direction of the pulsar PSR\,J2032+4127. The torus-shaped emission spans a $\approx 3'\times 2'$ jet-like structure. It is spatially coincident with the Fermi $γ$-ray source 4FGL\,J2032.3+4127. We suggest that the hard diffuse X-ray emission is the pulsar wind nebula bearing the pulsa…
The view of the gamma-ray universe is being continuously expanded by space high energy (HE) and ground based very-high energy (VHE) observatories. Yet, the angular resolution limitation still precludes a straightforward identification of these gamma-ray emitting sources. Radio observations are an effective tool for searching their possible counterparts at lower energies because the same population of relativistic electrons responsible for radio emission can also produce HE/VHE emission via inverse-Compton scattering. The Cygnus region is crowded by many gamma-ray sources, most of them remainin…
Underlying nearly every quantitative discussion of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant is uncertainty about its distance. Here we present optical images and spectra of nebulosities around two stars whose mass-loss material appears to have interacted with the remnant's expanding shock front and thus can be used to estimate the Cygnus Loop's distance. Narrow passband images reveal a small emission-line nebula surrounding an M4 red giant near the remnant's eastern nebula NGC 6992. Optical spectra of the nebula show it to be shock-heated with significantly higher electron densities than seen in the …
The morphology of young Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWN) is largely determined by the properties of the wind injected by the pulsar. We have used a recent parametrization of the wind obtained from Force Free Electrodynamics simulations of pulsar magnetospheres to simulate nebulae for different sets of pulsar parameters. We performed axisymmetric Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics simulations to test the morphology dependence of the nebula on the obliquity of the pulsar and on the magnetization of the pulsar wind. We compare these simulations to the morphology of the Vela and Crab PWN. We find that the…
We have analyzed archival XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of the gamma-ray radio-quiet pulsar J1826-1256 and its pulsar wind nebula. The pulsar spectrum can be described by a power-law model with a photon index $Γ\approx1$. We find that the nebular spectrum softens with increasing distance from the pulsar, implying synchrotron cooling. The empirical interstellar absorption-distance relation gives a distance of $\approx3.5$ kpc to J1826-1256. We also discuss the nebula geometry and association between the pulsar, the very high energy source HESS J1826-130, the supernova remnant candidate G1…
Bow-shock pulsar wind nebulae are a subset of pulsar wind nebulae that form when the pulsar has high velocity due to the natal kick during the supernova explosion. The interaction between the relativistic wind from the fast-moving pulsar and the interstellar medium produces a bow-shock and a trail, which are detectable in H$_α$ emission. Among such bow-shock pulsar wind nebulae, the Guitar Nebula stands out for its peculiar morphology, which consists of a prominent bow-shock head and a series of bubbles further behind. We present a scenario in which multiple bubbles can be produced when the pu…
We present first results of three dimensional relativistic magnetohydrodynamical simulations of Pulsar Wind Nebulae. They show that the kink instability and magnetic dissipation inside these nebulae may be the key processes allowing to reconcile their observations with the theory of pulsar winds. In particular, the size of the termination shock, obtained in the simulations, agrees very well with the observations even for Poynting-dominated pulsar winds. Due to magnetic dissipation the total pressure in the simulated nebulae is particle-dominated and more or less uniform. While in the main body…
A spatially-independent model that can be used to calculate the temporal evolution of the electron/ positron spectrum in a spherically expanding pulsar wind nebula is presented. The model is applied to the young nebula G21.5-0.9, as well as to the unidentified TeV sources HESS J1427-608 and HESS J1507-622. The parameters derived from the model strengthens the idea that the unidentified sources can be identified as evolved pulsar wind nebulae.
We review multiwavelength properties of pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) created by supersonically moving pulsars and the effects of pulsar motion on the PWN morphologies and the ambient medium. Supersonic pulsar wind nebulae (SPWNe) are characterized by bow-shaped shocks around the pulsar and/or cometary tails filled with the shocked pulsar wind. In the past several years significant advances in SPWN studies have been made in deep observations with the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray Observatories as well as the Hubble Space Telescope. In particular, these observations have revealed very diverse SPWN …
We report on the results of Chandra X-ray observations of the $γ$-ray radio-quiet pulsar J1932+1916. We confirm the previous detection of the pulsar counterpart and its pulsar wind nebula in X-rays from low spatial resolution data obtained by Suzaku and Swift. The Chandra data with much better spatial resolution resolved the fine structure of the nebula in the pulsar vicinity, which can be interpreted as jets bent by the ram pressure. The size of this compact part is about 30'', and it is surrounded by a weak asymmetric diffusive emission extended up to $\approx$ 2.8'. The X-ray spectra of the…
The Cygnus region hosts a giant molecular-cloud complex which actively forms massive stars. Interactions of cosmic rays with interstellar gas and radiation fields make it shine at gamma-ray energies. Several gamma-ray pulsars and other energetic sources are seen in this direction. In this paper we analyse the gamma-ray emission measured by the Fermi Large Area Telescope in the energy range from 100 MeV to 100 GeV in order to probe the gas and cosmic-ray content over the scale of the whole Cygnus complex. The signal from bright pulsars is largely reduced by selecting photons in their off-pulse …
The number of plausible associations of extended VHE (TeV) sources with pulsars has been steadily growing, suggesting that many of these sources are pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). Here we overview the recent progress in X-ray and TeV observations of PWNe and summarize their properties.
We investigate a class of pulsar wind nebulae that show synchrotron emission from a thick toroidal structure. The best studied such object is the small radio and X-ray nebula around the Vela pulsar, which can be interpreted as the result of interaction of a mildly supersonic inward flow with the recent pulsar wind. Such a flow near the center of a supernova remnant can be produced in a transient phase when the reverse shock reaches the center of the remnant. Other nebulae with a thick toroidal structure are G106.6+2.9 and G76.9+1.0. Their structure contrasts with young pulsar nebulae like the …
The hard X-ray synchrotron emission from pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) probes energetic particles, closely related to the pulsar injection power at the present time. INTEGRAL has disclosed the yet poorly known population of hard X-ray pulsar/PWN systems. We summarize the properties of the class, with emphasys on the first hard X-ray bow-shock (CTB 80 powered by PSR B1951+32), and highlight some prospects for the study of Pulsar Wind Nebulae with the Simbol-X mission.
We report the detection of extended emission around the anomalous X-ray pulsar AXP 1E1547.0-5408 using archival data of the Chandra X-ray satellite. The extended emission consists of an inner part, with an extent of 45arsec and an outer part with an outer radius of 2.9arcmin, which coincides with a supernova remnant shell previously detected in the radio. We argue that the extended emission in the inner part is the result of a pulsar wind nebula, which would be the first detected pulsar wind nebula around a magnetar candidate. Its ratio of X-ray luminosity to pulsar spin-down power is comparab…
The role pulsar wind nebulae play in producing our locally observed cosmic ray spectrum remains murky, yet intriguing. Pulsar wind nebulae are born and evolve in conjunction with SNRs, which are favored sites of Galactic cosmic ray acceleration. As a result they frequently complicate interpretation of the gamma-ray emission seen from SNRs. However, pulsar wind nebulae may also contribute directly to the local cosmic ray spectrum, particularly the leptonic component. This paper reviews the current thinking on pulsar wind nebulae and their connection to cosmic ray production from an observationa…
We report on X-ray studies of the gamma-ray pulsar PSR J1418$-$6058 in the Rabbit pulsar wind nebula (PWN) carried out using archival Chandra and XMM-Newton observations. A refined timing analysis performed with the 120-ks XMM-Newton data finds significant ($p\approx10^{-7}$) pulsation at $P\approx110$ ms which is consistent with that measured with the Fermi large area telescope (LAT). In the Chandra image, we find extended emission around the pulsar similar to those seen around other pulsars in young PWNe, which further argues for association between PSR J1418$-$6058 and the Rabbit PWN. The X…
We present the results of the analysis of 8 years of Fermi-LAT data of the pulsar/pulsar wind nebula complex PSR J0205+6449/3C 58. Using a contemporaneous ephemeris, we carried out a detailed analysis of PSR J0205+6449 both during its off-peak and on-peak phase intervals. 3C 58 is significantly detected during the off-peak phase interval. We show that the spectral energy distribution at high energies is the same disregarding the phases considered, and thus that this part of the spectrum is most likely dominated by the nebula radiation. We present results of theoretical models of the nebula and…
The high sensitivity of the Fermi-LAT (Large Area Telescope) offers the first opportunity to study faint and extended GeV sources such as pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). After one year of observation the LAT detected and identified three pulsar wind nebulae: the Crab Nebula, Vela-X and the PWN inside MSH 15-52. In the meantime, the list of LAT detected pulsars increased steadily. These pulsars are characterized by high energy loss rates from ~3 \times 10^{33} erg s$^{-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 of…
Pulsars are known to be efficient accelerators that produce copious amounts of relativistic particles and inject them into the Galactic medium. The radiation emitted by such a pulsar wind can be seen from radio through gamma-rays as a pulsar-wind nebula (PWN). Here we overview and summarize recent progress in X-ray and TeV observations of PWNe.
In this review we describe recent observational and theoretical developments in our understanding of pulsar winds and pulsar-wind nebulae (PWNe). We put special emphasis on the results from observations of well-characterized PWNe of various types (e.g., torus-jet and bowshock-tail), the most recent MHD modeling efforts, and the status of the flaring Crab PWN puzzle.
The extended nebulae formed as pulsar winds expand into their surroundings provide information about the composition of the winds, the injection history from the host pulsar, and the material into which the nebulae are expanding. Observations from across the electromagnetic spectrum provide constraints on the evolution of the nebulae, the density and composition of the surrounding ejecta, the geometry of the central engines, and the long-term fate of the energetic particles produced in these systems. Such observations reveal the presence of jets and wind termination shocks, time-varying compac…
We numerically study the radiative properties of the reverberation phase of pulsar wind nebulae. Reverberation brings a significant evolution in a short period of time. We show that even the Crab nebula, associated to the more energetic pulsar of the sample we consider, has a period in its future time evolution where the X-ray luminosity will exceed the spin-down power at the time. In fact, all nebulae in our sample are expected to have a period of radio, X-ray, and GeV superefficiency, and most will also have a period of TeV superefficiency. We analyze and characterize these superefficient ph…
We present observations of HESS J1640-465 with the Fermi-LAT. The source is detected with high confidence as an emitter of high-energy gamma-rays. The spectrum lacks any evidence for the characteristic cutoff associated with emission from pulsars, indicating that the emission arises primarily from the pulsar wind nebula. Broadband modeling implies an evolved nebula with a low magnetic field resulting in a high gamma-ray to X-ray flux ratio. The Fermi emission exceeds predictions of the broadband model, and has a steeper spectrum, possibly resulting from a distinct excess of low energy electron…
To investigate the nature and evolution of TeV pulsar wind nebulae, we examine the firmly identified PWNe in the H.E.S.S. Galactic Plane Survey, along with the few other known detections from the literature, as well as the upper limits extracted from the H.E.S.S survey. These data exhibit a correlation of TeV surface brightness with pulsar spin-down power. It appears to be caused by both an increase of TeV extension and a decrease of TeV luminosity with decreasing spin-down power. We also find that the offsets of pulsars with ages around 10 kyr with respect to the wind nebula centres are frequ…
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 $μ$G to a few hundred $μ$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 c…
We investigate the dynamics of bow shock nebulae created by pulsars moving supersonically through a partially ionized interstellar medium. A fraction of interstellar neutral hydrogen atoms penetrating into the tail region of a pulsar wind will undergo photo-ionization due to the UV light emitted by the nebula, with the resulting mass loading dramatically changing the flow dynamics of the light leptonic pulsar wind. Using a quasi 1-D hydrodynamic model of relativistic flow we find that if a relatively small density of neutral hydrogen, as low as $10^{-4}$ cm$^{-3}$, penetrate inside the pulsar …
The Crab nebula and its pulsar (referred to together as "Crab") have historically played a central role in astrophysics. True to their legacy, several unique discoveries have been made recently. The Crab was found to emit gamma-ray pulsations up to energies of 400 GeV, beyond what was previously expected from pulsars. Strong gamma-ray flares, of durations of a few days were discovered from within the nebula, while the source was previously expected to be stable in flux on these time scales. Here we review these intriguing and suggestive developments. In this context we give an overview of the …
We investigate the dynamics of bow shock nebulae created by pulsars moving supersonically through a partially ionized interstellar medium. A fraction of interstellar neutral hydrogen atoms penetrating into the tail region of a pulsar wind will undergo photo-ionization due to the UV light emitted by the nebula, with the resulting mass loading dramatically changing the flow dynamics of the light leptonic pulsar wind. Using a quasi 1-D hydrodynamic model of both non-relativistic and relativistic flow, and focusing on scales much larger than the stand-off distance, we find that if a relatively sma…
I review the current status of our theoretical understanding of Pulsar Winds and associated nebulae (PWNe). In recent years, axisymmetric models of pulsar winds with a latitude dependent energy flux have proved very successful at explaining the morphology of PWNe as seen in the X-rays. This success has prompted developments aimed at using multi-wavelength observations of these nebulae as a diagnostics of the hidden physics of the pulsar wind and of the mechanism(s) through which particles are accelerated in these sources. I will discuss these most recent developments in terms of the informatio…
Recently, gamma-ray emission at TeV energies has been detected from the starburst galaxies NGC253 (Acero et al., 2009) and M82 (Acciari et al., 2009. It has been claimed that pion production due to cosmic rays accelerated in supernova remnants interacting with the interstellar gas is responsible for the observed gamma rays. Here, we show that the gamma-ray pulsar wind nebulae left behind by the supernovae contribute to the TeV luminosity in a major way. A single pulsar wind nebula produces about ten times the total luminosity of the Sun at energies above 1 TeV during a lifetime of 10^5 years. …
To look for possible phenomenological connections between pulsar's 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 …
In the last decade, the relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modelling of pulsar wind nebulae, and of the Crab nebula in particular, has been highly successful, with many of the observed dynamical and emission properties reproduced down to the finest detail. Here, we critically discuss the results of some of the most recent studies: namely the investigation of the origin of the radio emitting particles and the quest for the acceleration sites of particles of different energies along the termination shock, by using wisps motion as a diagnostic tool; the study of the magnetic dissipation proce…
We have detected an Halpha bow shock nebula around PSR J1741-2054, a pulsar discovered through its GeV gamma-ray pulsations. The pulsar is only ~1.5" behind the leading edge of the shock. Optical spectroscopy shows that the nebula is non-radiative, dominated by Balmer emission. The Halpha images and spectra suggest that the pulsar wind momentum is equatorially concentrated and implies a pulsar space velocity ~150km/s, directed 15+/-10deg out of the plane of the sky. The complex Halpha profile indicates that different portions of the post-shock flow dominate line emission as gas moves along the…
The extended nebulae formed as pulsar winds expand into their surroundings provide information about the composition of the winds, the injection history from the host pulsar, and the material into which the nebulae are expanding. Observations from across the electromagnetic spectrum provide constraints on the evolution of the nebulae, the density and composition of the surrounding ejecta, the geometry of the central engines, and the long-term fate of the energetic particles produced in these systems. Such observations reveal the presence of jets and wind termination shocks, time-varying compac…
Anomalous scattering of pulsars towards the Gum Nebula
Radio Astronomy Centre, NCRA-TIFR（射电天文中心，NCRA-TIFR）；National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research（国家射电天体物理中心，塔塔基础研究所）；Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center（日球物理学科学部，NASA戈达德太空飞行中心）；The Catholic University of America（美国天主教大学）
The evolution of the non-thermal emission emitted by pulsar wind nebulae is generally calculated using spatially-independent particle transport models. Although useful, these models implicitly assume that the source of non-thermal particles is located uniformly throughout the system, contrary to the nature of pulsar wind nebulae where the source is located at the centre of the system. Additionally, it is not possible to take into account the spatial properties of the magnetic field and flow velocity, or the effects of diffusion and gradient and curvature drifts in these models. In this paper w…
A largely extended X-ray emission was discovered around the pulsar PSR J1357-6429 with the Suzaku deep observations. The pulsar, whose characteristic age is 7.3 kyr, is located within the TeV gamma-ray source HESS J1356-645. The extended emission is found to have a 1sigma X-ray size of ~4 arcmin, or ~3 pc at 2.4 kpc, with a small offset from the pulsar. Its X-ray spectrum is well reproduced by a simple power-law model with a photon index of 1.70+0.07-0.06. No significant spatial variation was found for the X-ray photon index as a function of distance from the pulsar. We conclude that the exten…
We present results from a leptonic emission code that models the spectral energy distribution of a pulsar wind nebula by solving a Fokker-Planck-type transport equation and calculating inverse Compton and synchrotron emissivities. We have created this time-dependent, multi-zone model to investigate changes in the particle spectrum as they traverse the pulsar wind nebula, by considering a time and spatially-dependent B-field, spatially-dependent bulk particle speed implying convection and adiabatic losses, diffusion, as well as radiative losses. Our code predicts the radiation spectrum at diffe…
In the last decade ground-based Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes have discovered roughly 30 pulsar wind nebulae at energies above 100 GeV. We present first results from a leptonic emission code that models the spectral energy density of a pulsar wind nebula by solving the Fokker-Planck transport equation and calculating inverse Compton and synchrotron emissivities. Although models such as these have been developed before, most of them model the geometry of a pulsar wind nebula as that of a single sphere. We have created a time-dependent, multi-zone model to investigate changes in the p…
High-energy particle transport in pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) plays an essential role in explaining the characteristics revealed in multiwavelength observations. In this paper, the TeV-gamma-ray-emitting electrons in the Vela X PWN are approximated to be injected impulsively when the cocoon is formed due to the interaction between the SNR reverse shock and the PWN. By solving the diffusion-loss equation analytically, we reproduce the broadband spectral energy distribution and surface brightness profile simultaneously. The diffusion coefficient of TeV electrons and positrons, which is well const…
We review properties of Galactic VHE sources detected at TeV energies. The number of associations between the VHE sources and pulsars has grown in recent years, making pulsar-wind nebulae the dominant population, although there is still a substantial number of VHE sources which remain to be identified. Among the latter there are several "dark" sources which do not have plausible counterparts at any other wavelengths. In this review we compile and compare the TeV and X-ray properties of pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), PWN candidates, and unidentified TeV sources.
G54.1+0.3 is a Crab-like pulsar wind nebula (PWN) with the highest $γ$-ray to X-ray luminosity ratio among all the nebulae driven by young rotation-powered pulsars. We model the spectral evolution of the PWN and find it difficult to match the observed multi-band data with leptons alone using reasonable model parameters. In lepton-hadron hybrid model instead, TeV photons come mainly from $π^0$ decay in proton-proton interaction and the observed photon spectrum can be well reproduced. The newly discovered infrared loop and molecular cloud in or closely around the PWN can work as the target for t…
Nearby pulsars have been suggested as sources of $\sim$TeV $e^+/e^-$ Cosmic Ray (CR) excess on Earth. The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC) detected extended TeV emission regions in the direction of two nearby middle-aged pulsars, Geminga and PSR B0656+14. By modeling the TeV emission as inverse Compton emission from electron-positron pairs diffusing in the interstellar medium (ISM), the HAWC collaboration derives a diffusion coefficient much smaller than the standard value in the vicinity of the two pulsars, which make them unlikely the origin of the positron excess. We propose…
Identification and characterization of a rapidly increasing number of pulsar wind nebulae is, and will continue to be, a challenge of high-energy gamma-ray astrophysics. Given that such systems constitute -- by far -- the most numerous expected population in the TeV regime, such characterization is important not only to learn about the sources per se from an individual and population perspective, but also to be able to connect them with observations at other frequencies, especially in radio and X-rays. Also, we need to remove the emission from nebulae in highly confused regions of the sky for …
Recently, two photons with energy of about 1 PeV have been detected by LHAASO from the Crab nebula, opening an ultra-high energy window for studying the pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). Remarkably, the LHAASO spectrum at the highest-energy end shows a possible hardening, which could indicate the presence of a new component. A two-component scenario with a main electron component and a secondary proton component has been proposed to explain the whole spectrum of the Crab Nebula, requiring a proton energy of $10^{46}-10^{47}{\rm ergs}$ remaining in the present Crab Nebula. In this paper, we study the…
Time-resolved polarisation measurements of pulsars offer an unique insight into the geometry of their emission regions. Such measure\ ments provide observational constraints on the different models proposed for the pulsar emission mechanisms. Optical polarisation data of the Crab Nebula was obtained from the HST archive. The data set consists of a series of observations of the nebula taken with the HST/ACS. We produced polarisation vector maps of the inner nebula and measured, for the first time, the degree of linear polarisation (P.D.) and the position angle (P.A.) of the pulsar's integrated …
We discuss the observational properties of pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) linking them to the injected (at the termination shock) electron spectral energy distribution and parameters of pulsar magnetospheres. In particular, we (1) present spatially-resolved Chandra ACIS spectral maps of twelve PWNe and measure the slopes of the uncooled PWN spectra just downstream of the termination shock obtained from these maps, (2) consider the connections between PWN morphologies and predictions of the magnetospheric emission models and (3) discuss the limits on the maximum energies of particles in PWNe from X…
Pulsar Wind Nebulae are highly intriguing astrophysical objects in many respects. They are the brightest and closest class of relativistic sources, and hence the ultimate laboratory for the physics of relativistic plasmas: several processes observed (or inferred to occur) in other classes of relativistic sources can here be studied with unique detail, like the acceleration and collimation of relativistic outflows, or the acceleration of particles at relativistic shocks. Here I review the current status of our theoretical understanding of Pulsar Wind Nebulae in light of the most recent 2D and 3…
We have investigated the relaxation of a hydrostatic hot plasma column containing toroidal magnetic field by the Current-Driven (CD) kink instability as a model of pulsar wind nebulae. In our simulations the CD kink instability is excited by a small initial velocity perturbation and develops turbulent structure inside the hot plasma column. We demonstrate that, as envisioned by Begelman, the hoop stress declines and the initial gas pressure excess near the axis decreases. The magnetization parameter σ, the ratio of the Poynting to the kinetic energy flux, declines from an initial value of 0.3 …
Pulsar wind nebulae are fascinating systems, and archetypal sources for high-energy astrophysics in general. Due to their vicinity, brightness, to the fact that they shine at multi-wavelengths, and especially to their long-living emission at gamma-rays, modelling their properties is particularly important for the correct interpretation of the visible Galaxy. A complication in this respect is the variety of properties and morphologies they show at different ages. Here we discuss the differences among the evolutionary phases of pulsar wind nebulae, how they have been modeled in the past and what…
We have carried out a detailed study of the spectral nature of six pulsars surrounded by Pulsar wind nebulae (PWN). The pulsar flux density were estimated using the interferometric imaging technique of the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at three frequencies 325 MHz, 610 MHz and 1280 MHz. The spectra showed a turnover around gigahertz frequency in four out of six pulsars. It has been suggested that the gigahertz peaked spectra (GPS) in pulsars arises due to thermal absorption of the pulsar emission in surrounding medium like PWN, HII regions, Supernova remnants, etc. The relatively high incide…
The Vela supernova remnant is the closest supernova remnant to Earth containing an active pulsar, the Vela pulsar (PSR B0833-45). This pulsar is the archetype of the middle-aged pulsar class and powers a bright pulsar wind nebula (PWN), Vela-X, spanning a region of 2° x 3° south of the pulsar and observed in the radio, X-ray and very high energy gamma-ray domains. The detection of the Vela-X PWN by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) was reported in the first year of the mission. Subsequently, we have re-investigated this complex region and performed a detailed morphological and spectral anal…
We report the detection of high energy gamma-ray emission from the young and energetic pulsar PSR B1509$-$58 and its pulsar wind nebula (PWN) in the composite supernova remnant SNR G320.4-1.2 (aka MSH 15-52). Using 1 year of survey data with the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT), we detected pulsations from PSR B1509-58 up to 1 GeV and extended gamma-ray emission above 1 GeV spatially coincident with the PWN. The pulsar light curve presents two peaks offset from the radio peak by phases 0.96 $\pm$ 0.01 and 0.33 $\pm$ 0.02. New constraining upper limits on the pulsar emission are derived below 1…
Neutron stars lose the bulk of their rotational energy in the form of a pulsar wind: an ultra-relativistic outflow of predominantly electrons and positrons. This pulsar wind significantly impacts the environment and possible binary companion of the neutron star, and studying the resultant pulsar wind nebulae is critical for understanding the formation of neutron stars and millisecond pulsars, the physics of the neutron star magnetosphere, the acceleration of leptons up to PeV energies, and how these particles impact the interstellar medium. With the SKA1 and the SKA2, it could be possible to s…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the next generation instrument for the very high energy gamma-ray astrophysics domain. With its enhanced sensitivity in comparison with the current facilities, CTA is expected to shed light on a varied population of sources. In particular, we will achieve a deeper knowledge of the Crab nebula and pulsar, which are the best characterized pulsar wind nebula and rotation powered pulsar, respectively. We aim at studying the capabilities of CTA regarding these objects through simulations, using the main tools currently in development for the CTA future da…
Recent observations by the PAMELA and AMS-02 telescopes have uncovered an anomalous rise in the positron fraction at energies above 10~GeV. One possible explanation for this excess is the production of primary electron/positron pairs through electromagnetic cascades in pulsar magnetospheres. This process results in a high multiplicity of electron/positron pairs within the wind-termination shock of pulsar wind nebula (PWN). A consequence of this scenario is that no circular polarization should be observed within PWN, since the contributions from electrons and positrons exactly cancel. Here we n…
When a pulsar is moving through a partially ionized medium, a fraction of neutral Hydrogen atoms penetrate inside the pulsar wind and can be photo-ionized by the nebula UV radiation. The resulting protons remains attached to the magnetic field of the light leptonic pulsar wind enhancing its inertia and changing the flow dynamics of the wind. We present here the first numerical simulations of such effect in the tails of bow shock nebulae. We produce a set of different models representative of pulsars moving in the interstellar medium with different velocities, from highly subsonic to supersonic…
Taking advantage of 10 years of Fermi-LAT data, we perform a new and deep analysis of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) HESS J1825-137. We present the results of the spectral analysis and of the first energy-resolved morphological study of the PWN HESS J1825-137 from 1 GeV to 1 TeV. This PWN is an archetypal system making it a perfect laboratory for studying particle transport mechanisms. Combining this analysis with recent H.E.S.S. results enables a more complete picture of the nebula to emerge.
