Published in

American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, 1(528), p. 436-444, 2000

DOI: 10.1086/308139

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

ASCAObservations of the Young Rotation‐powered Pulsars PSR B1046−58 and PSR B1610−50

Journal article published in 2000 by M. J. Pivovaroff, V. M. Kaspi, E. V. Gotthelf ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Red circle
Preprint: archiving forbidden
Red circle
Postprint: archiving forbidden
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We present X-ray observations of two young energetic radio pulsars, PSRs B1046-58 and B1610-50, and their surroundings, using archival data from the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA). The energetic pulsar PSR B1046-58 is detected in X-rays with a significance of 4.5 sigma. The unabsorbed flux, estimated assuming a power-law spectrum and a neutral hydrogen column density N_H of 5E21 cm^-2 is (2.5 +/- 0.3) x 10E-13 ergs/cm^2/s in the 2-10 keV band. Pulsed emission is not detected; the pulsed fraction is less than 31% at the 90% confidence level for a 50% duty cycle. We argue that the emission is best explained as originating from a pulsar-powered synchrotron nebula. The X-ray counterpart of the pulsar is the only hard source within the 95% error region of the previously unidentified gamma-ray source 3EG J1048-5840. This evidence supports the results of Kaspi et al. (1999), who in a companion paper, suggest that PSR B1046-58 is the counterpart to 3EG J1048-5840. X-ray emission from PSR B1610-50 is not detected. Using similar assumptions as above, the derived 3 sigma upper limit for the unabsorbed 2-10 keV X-ray flux is 1.5E-13 ergs/cm^2/s. We use the flux limit to estimate the pulsar's velocity to be less than ~170 km/s, casting doubt on a previously reported association between PSR B1610-50 and supernova remnant Kes 32. Kes 32 is detected, as is evident from the correlation between X-ray and radio emission. The ASCA images of PSR B1610-50 are dominated by mirror-scattered emission from the X-ray-bright supernova remnant RCW 103, located 33' away. We find no evidence for extended emission around either pulsar, in contrast to previous reports of large nebulae surrounding both pulsars. Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ (v.528, pp.436-444) Correcting typo in abstract of .tex file