The Dawes Review 11: From young to old: The evolutionary path of Pulsar Wind Nebulae

Olmi, Barbara; Bucciantini, N.

doi:10.1017/pasa.2023.5

Cited by 16 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 240 publications

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“…Again, such features could arise out of strong turbulence in the region leading to compression and enhancement of the synchrotron emissivity, but may also be indicative of jet-like features originating from the pulsar (see, e.g., de Vries & Romani 2022). Such jet-like features arise due to the escape of high-energy particles from the PWN along the magnetic field lines of the ISM (Olmi & Bucciantini 2020) or could be jets from the equatorial region where the magnetic field is stronger. Hence, it is possible that the asymmetric hot spots of emission that we see near the pulsar in the radio image shown in Figure 2 are one such jet.…”

Section: Anomalous Features: Kinks Laminar Flows Asymmetric Emissionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolving the Bow Shock and Tail of the Cannonball Pulsar PSR J0002+6216

Kumar

Schinzel

Taylor

et al. 2023

ApJ

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We present X-ray and radio observations of the recently discovered bow-shock pulsar wind nebula (PWN) associated with PSR J0002+6216, characterizing the PWN morphology, which was unresolved in previous studies. The multifrequency, multiepoch Very Large Array (VLA) radio observations reveal a cometary tail trailing the pulsar and extending up to 5.′3, with multiple kinks along the emission. The presented radio continuum images from multiconfiguration broadband VLA observations are one of the first results from the application of multiterm multifrequency synthesis deconvolution in combination with the AWProject gridder implemented in the Common Astronomy Software Applications (CASA) package. The X-ray emission observed with Chandra extends to only 21″, fades quickly, and has some hot spots present along the extended radio emission. These kinks could indicate the presence of density variations in the local interstellar medium or turbulence. The bow-shock standoff distance estimates a small bow-shock region with a size of 0.003–0.009 pc, consistent with the pulsar spin-down power of E ̇ = 1.51 × 1035 erg s−1 estimated from timing. The high-resolution radio image reveals the presence of an asymmetry in the bow-shock region, which is also present in the X-ray image. The broadband radio image shows an unusually steep spectrum along with a flat-spectrum sheath, which could indicate varying opacity or energy injection into the region. Spatially resolved X-ray spectra provide marginal evidence of synchrotron cooling along the extended tail. Our analysis of the X-ray data also shows that this pulsar has a low spin-down power and one of the lowest X-ray efficiencies observed in these objects.

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Section: Anomalous Features: Kinks Laminar Flows Asymmetric Emissionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolving the Bow Shock and Tail of the Cannonball Pulsar PSR J0002+6216

Kumar

Schinzel

Taylor

et al. 2023

ApJ

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“…1: (i) the free expansion phase; (ii) the reverberation phase; (iii) the late or bow shock phase. For a recent review about the different PWNe evolutionary phases, available models, and comparison with observation, we refer the reader to [6].…”

Section: The Different Phases Of Pwne Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Pulsar Wind Nebulae contribution to gamma-rays

Olmi¹

2023

Proceedings of 7th Heidelberg International Symposium on High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy — PoS(Gamma2022)

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Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWNe) shine at multi-wavelengths and are expected to constitute the largest class of gamma-ray sources in our Galaxy. They are known to be very efficient particle accelerators: the Crab nebula, the PWNe class prototype, is the unique firmly identified leptonic PeVatron of the Galaxy to date, and most of the PeVatrons recently detected by LHAASO appear to be compatible with a pulsar origin. PWNe have been proved to be associated with the formation of misaligned X-ray tails and TeV halos, as sign of an efficient escape of energetic particles from the PWN into the surrounding medium. With the advent of the Cherenkov Telescope Array we expect that ∼ 200 new PWNe will be detected. Being able to correctly model their multi-wavelength spectral properties, spatial and spectral morphology at gamma-rays is then topical today. This in particular means we should be able to account for their different evolutionary phases, and to correctly determine the influence they have on the spectral properties of the source. This indeed reflects directly on the expectation of how many PWNe will be detected at gamma-rays. Finally, the identification of PWNe in future gamma-ray data, not only is relevant for their scientific importance, but also to allow for the identification of less prominent sources that might be hidden by the background of non-identified PWNe.

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“…In this manuscript, we will mainly focus on this particular evolutionary phase. Although interesting in itself from an evolutionary point of view, the number of observations indicating that these sources are associated with the release of a large number of particles into the ambient medium has increased in recent years [6], renewing the scientific community's interest in these particular PWNe. Understanding with what efficiency and properties particles are released into the environment is particularly relevant to asses the role of pulsars as cosmic ray (CR) sources in the Galaxy, and their relevance for the measured positron excess in the CR spectrum on Earth [28,29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The following stage starts when the RS reaches the PWN boundary. This phase is known as "reveberation", due to the prediction by one-zone and 1D models of a number of oscillations of the PWN between compressions and re-expansions under the pressure exerted by the SNR (see, e.g., Olmi and Bucciantini [6] for a detailed discussion and a complete list of references). During this phase, the PWN may experience important morphological and spectral modifications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, we have observed around 110 PWNe in different stages, plus ∼20 other candidate sources [6]. However the number of PWNe in the Galaxy is estimated to be much larger; a rough evaluation can be done considering a rate of birth of pulsars in the Galaxy of 1/100 yr [10] and 100 kyr as the order of magnitude for the lifetime of a PWN at gamma-rays (the longer living energy band), obtaining an expected number of 1000 PWNe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evolved Pulsar Wind Nebulae

Olmi

2023

Universe

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Based on the expected population of core collapse supernova remnants and the huge number of detected pulsars in the Galaxy, still representing only a fraction of the real population, pulsar wind nebulae are likely to constitute one of the largest classes of extended Galactic sources in many energy bands. For simple evolutionary reasons, the majority of the population is made of evolved systems, whose detection and identification are complicated by their reduced luminosity, the possible lack of X-ray emission (that fades progressively away with the age of the pulsar), and by their modified morphology with respect to young systems. Nevertheless they have gained renewed attention in recent years, following the detection of misaligned X-ray tails protruding from an increasing number of nebulae created by fast moving pulsars, and of extended TeV halos surrounding aged systems. Both these features are clear signs of an efficient escape of particles, with energy close to the maximum acceleration limit of the pulsar. Here we discuss the properties of those evolved systems and what we have understood about the process of particle escape, and the formation of observed features.

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The Dawes Review 11: From young to old: The evolutionary path of Pulsar Wind Nebulae

Cited by 16 publications

References 240 publications

Resolving the Bow Shock and Tail of the Cannonball Pulsar PSR J0002+6216

Resolving the Bow Shock and Tail of the Cannonball Pulsar PSR J0002+6216

The Pulsar Wind Nebulae contribution to gamma-rays

Evolved Pulsar Wind Nebulae

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