We report on radio and X-ray observations of PSR J1832+0029, a 533ms radio pulsar discovered in the Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey. From radio observations taken with the Parkes, Lovell and Arecibo telescopes, we show that this pulsar exhibits two spindown states akin to PSRs B1931+24 reported by Kramer et al. and J1841−0500 reported by Camilo et al. Unlike PSR B1931+24, which switches between "on" and "off" states on a 30-40 day time-scale, PSR J1832+0029 is similar to PSR J1841−0500 in that it spends a much longer period of time in the off-state. So far, we have fully sampled two off-states. The first one lasted between 560 and 640 days and the second one lasted between 810 and 835 days. From our radio timing observations, the ratio of on/off spindown rates is 1.77 ± 0.03. Chandra observations carried out during both the on-and off-states of this pulsar failed to detect any emission. Our results challenge but do not rule out models involving accretion onto the neutron star from a low-mass stellar companion. In spite of the small number of intermittent pulsars currently known, difficulties in discovering them and in quantifying their behavior imply that their total population could be substantial.

Thin nonthermal X-ray filaments are often seen in young supernova remnants. We used data from the 1 Ms Chandra observation of Cassiopeia A to study spectral properties of some of the filaments in this remnant. For all the cases that we examined, the X-ray spectrum across the filaments hardens, at about 10% level, going outward, while observed filament widths depend only weakly on the photon energy. Using a model that includes radiative cooling, advection, and diffusion of accelerated particles behind the shock, we estimated the magnetic field, turbulence level, and shock obliquity.

We observed the young pulsar J1357-6429 with the Chandra and XMM-Newton observatories. The pulsar spectrum fits well a combination of an absorbed power-law model (Γ = 1.7 ± 0.6) and a blackbody model (kT = 140 +60 −40 eV, R ∼ 2 km at the distance of 2.5 kpc). Strong pulsations with pulsed fraction of 42% ± 5%, apparently associated with the thermal component, were detected in 0.3-1.1 keV. Surprisingly, the pulsed fraction at higher energies, 1.1-10 keV, appears to be smaller, 23% ± 4%. The small emitting area of the thermal component either corresponds to a hotter fraction of the neutron star surface or indicates inapplicability of the simplistic blackbody description. The X-ray images also reveal a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) with complex, asymmetric morphology comprised of a brighter, compact PWN surrounded by the fainter, much more extended PWN whose spectral slopes are Γ = 1.3±0.3 and Γ = 1.7 ± 0.2, respectively. The extended PWN with the observed flux of ∼7.5 × 10 −13 erg s −1 cm −2 is a factor of 10 more luminous then the compact PWN. The pulsar and its PWN are located close to the center of the extended TeV source HESS J1356-645, which strongly suggests that the very high energy emission is powered by electrons injected by the pulsar long ago. The X-ray to TeV flux ratio, ∼0.1, is similar to those of other relic PWNe. We found no other viable candidates to power the TeV source. A region of diffuse radio emission, offset from the pulsar toward the center of the TeV source, could be synchrotron emission from the same relic PWN rather than from the supernova remnant.

PSR B1259−63 is a middle-aged radio pulsar (P = 48 ms, τ = 330 kyr, andĖ = 8.3 × 10 35 erg s −1 ) in an eccentric binary (P orb = 3.4 yr, e = 0.87) with a high-mass Be companion, SS 2883. We observed the binary near apastron with the Chandra ACIS detector on 2009 May 14 for 28 ks. In addition to the previously studied point-like source at the pulsar's position, we detected extended emission on the south-southwest side of this source. The point-like source spectrum can be described by the absorbed power-law model with the hydrogen column density N H = (2.5 ± 0.6) × 10 21 cm −2 , photon index Γ = 1.6 ± 0.1, and luminosity L 0.5-8 keV ≈ 1.3 × 10 33 d 2 3 erg s −1 , where d 3 is the distance scaled to 3 kpc. This emission likely includes an unresolved part of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) created by the colliding winds from the pulsar and the Be companion, and a contribution from the pulsar magnetosphere. The extended emission apparently consists of two components. The highly significant compact component looks like a southward extension of the point-like source image, seen up to ∼4 from the pulsar position. Its spectrum has about the same slope as the point-like source spectrum, while its luminosity is a factor of 10 lower. We also detected an elongated feature extended ∼15 southwest of the pulsar, but the significance of this detection is marginal. We tentatively interpret the resolved compact PWN component as a shocked pulsar wind blown out of the binary by the wind of the Be component, while the elongated component could be a pulsar jet.

Many of the recently discovered TeV γ−ray sources are associated with pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). In fact, they represent the most populous class of Galactic sources at TeV energies. In addition, HESS has also discovered, in a survey of the Galactic plane, a population of TeV γ−ray sources that are still without definitive counterparts at longer wavelengths. For a number of these sources, a pulsar is an evident association, which is often located within an extended region of the TeV γ−ray emission. These particular HESS sources are promising candidates for yet not resolved pulsar wind nebulae. Here we have undertaken a systematic search for X-ray counterparts of the sources, using the archival Chandra data, within the spatial bounds of the unidentified HESS sources. A number of X-ray sources have been detected in the Chandra fields. Two of them, CXOU J161729.3-505512 and CXOU J170252.4-412848, are of a special interest because of their excellent positional coincidence with the pulsars PSR J1617-5055 and PSR J1702-4128, respectively. The first source is extended, with a bright core of 2.6 ′′ (FWHM) in radius but the emission can be seen up to roughly 20 ′′ . The second one is much fainter and detected only with marginal significance (4.6σ). It might also be slightly extended, although the situation is quite uncertain due to very limited statistics. The analysis of the archival Chandra data for a middle-aged pulsar (PSR J1913+1011) does not reveal any statistically significant excess at and around the position of the pulsar or the center of gravity of its plausible TeV γ−ray counterpart (HESS J1912+101). We discuss the implications of the results.