NuSTAR Observations of PSR J1101-6101 and the Lighthouse Pulsar Wind Nebula

PSR J1101-6101 is an energetic young pulsar which powers an INTEGRAL source and the remarkable Lighthouse pulsar wind nebula (PWN). J1101 belongs to the rare type of radio- and gamma-ray-quiet pulsars which are bright in hard X-rays. The Lighthouse PWN is famous for its misaligned outflow (a.k.a. “kinetic jet”). These collimated parsec-scale X-ray structures have been recently discovered in the vicinity of a handful of fast-moving pulsars. The misaligned outflows appear to be unaffected by the ram pressure of the oncoming interstellar medium (unlike the rest of the pulsar wind) and are attributed to energetic pulsar wind particles that cannot be confined within the termination shock and thus escape into the unperturbed ISM along the magnetic field lines. We report on NuSTAR observations of PSR J1101 and its misaligned outflow (the first observation of such a structure above 8 keV). We detect the outflow up to 30 keV, spatially resolve the spectral evolution with distance from the pulsar, and find evidence that the spectral slope becomes steeper with increasing energy. We also detect pulsations from the pulsar up to 20 keV, present the X-ray light curve, confirm its period derivative, and perform phase-resolved spectroscopy.