Vela pulsar wind nebula X-rays are polarized to near the synchrotron limit | Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía

DOI:

10.1038/s41586-022-05476-5

Publication date:

11/12/2022

Main author:

Xie, Fei

IAA authors:

Agudo, Iván

Authors:

Xie, Fei;Di Marco, Alessandro;La Monaca, Fabio;Liu, Kuan;Muleri, Fabio;Bucciantini, Niccolò;Romani, Roger W.;Costa, Enrico;Rankin, John;Soffitta, Paolo;Bachetti, Matteo;Di Lalla, Niccolò;Fabiani, Sergio;Ferrazzoli, Riccardo;Gunji, Shuichi;Latronico, Luca;Negro, Michela;Omodei, Nicola;Pilia, Maura;Trois, Alessio;Watanabe, Eri;Agudo, Iván;Antonelli, Lucio A.;Baldini, Luca;Baumgartner, Wayne H.;Bellazzini, Ronaldo;Bianchi, Stefano;Bongiorno, Stephen D.;Bonino, Raffaella;Brez, Alessandro;Capitanio, Fiamma;Castellano, Simone;Cavazzuti, Elisabetta;Ciprini, Stefano;De Rosa, Alessandra;Del Monte, Ettore;Di Gesu, Laura;Donnarumma, Immacolata;Doroshenko, Victor;Dovčiak, Michal;Ehlert, Steven R.;Enoto, Teruaki;Evangelista, Yuri;Garcia, Javier A.;Hayashida, Kiyoshi;Heyl, Jeremy;Iwakiri, Wataru;Jorstad, Svetlana G.;Karas, Vladimir;Kitaguchi, Takao;Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J.;Krawczynski, Henric;Liodakis, Ioannis;Maldera, Simone;Manfreda, Alberto;Marin, Frédéric;Marinucci, Andrea;Marscher, Alan P.;Marshall, Herman L.;Massaro, Francesco;Matt, Giorgio;Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki;Mizuno, Tsunefumi;Ng, C. -Y.;O'Dell, Stephen L.;Oppedisano, Chiara;Papitto, Alessandro;Pavlov, George G.;Peirson, Abel L.;Perri, Matteo;Pesce-Rollins, Melissa;Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier;Possenti, Andrea;Poutanen, Juri;Puccetti, Simonetta;Ramsey, Brian D.;Ratheesh, Ajay;Sgró, Carmelo;Slane, Patrick;Spandre, Gloria;Tamagawa, Toru;Tavecchio, Fabrizio;Taverna, Roberto;Tawara, Yuzuru;Tennant, Allyn F.;Thomas, Nicolas E.;Tombesi, Francesco;Tsygankov, Sergey S.;Turolla, Roberto;Vink, Jacco;Weisskopf, Martin C.;Wu, Kinwah;Zane, Silvia

Journal:

Nature

Publication type:

Article

Volume:

612

Pages:

658-660

Abstract:

Pulsar wind nebulae are formed when outflows of relativistic electrons and positrons hit the surrounding supernova remnant or interstellar medium at a shock front. The Vela pulsar wind nebula is powered by a young pulsar (B0833-45, aged 11,000 years)1 and located inside an extended structure called Vela X, which is itself inside the supernova remnant2. Previous X-ray observations revealed two prominent arcs that are bisected by a jet and counter jet3,4. Radio maps have shown high linear polarization of 60% in the outer regions of the nebula5. Here we report an X-ray observation of the inner part of the nebula, where polarization can exceed 60% at the leading edge—approaching the theoretical limit of what can be produced by synchrotron emission. We infer that, in contrast with the case of the supernova remnant, the electrons in the pulsar wind nebula are accelerated with little or no turbulence in a highly uniform magnetic field.

Database:

ADS

SCOPUS

URL:

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/#abs/2022Natur.612..658X/abstract

ADS Bibcode:

2022Natur.612..658X