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"The Goose" Pulsar Wind Nebula of PSR J1016-5857 in X-rays and Radio: The Birth of a Plerion

Presentation #110.15 in the session “Stellar/Compact (Poster)”.

Published onApr 01, 2022
"The Goose" Pulsar Wind Nebula of PSR J1016-5857 in X-rays and Radio: The Birth of a Plerion

We report the results of X-ray (CXO) and radio (ATCA) observations of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) powered by the young pulsar PSR J1016-5857, which we dub “the Goose’” PWN. In both bands the images reveal an asymmetric tail-like PWN morphology which can be attributed to the pulsar’s motion. By comparing archival and new CXO observations we measure the pulsar’s proper motion μ = 28.8 ± 7.3 mas/yr, yielding a projected pulsar velocity v ≈ 440 ± 110 km/s (at d = 3.2 kpc); its direction is consistent with the PWN shape. Radio emission from the PWN is polarized, with the magnetic field oriented along the pulsar tail. The radio tail connects to a larger radio structure (not seen in X-rays) which we interpret as a relic PWN. The spectral analysis of the CXO data shows that the PWN spectrum softens from Γ = 1.7 to Γ = 2.3–2.5 with increasing distance from the pulsar. The softening can be attributed to synchrotron burn-off, which could explain the lack of X-ray emission from the older relic PWN. In addition to non-thermal PWN emission, we detected thermal emission from a hot plasma coincident with and surrounding the PWN, suggesting that the pulsar/PWN may still be residing within its progenitor SNR.

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