CaltechAUTHORS
Published November 1, 2023 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

The Polarized Cosmic Hand: IXPE Observations of PSR B1509−58/MSH 15−5²

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Stanford University
  • 2. ROR icon Guangxi University
  • 3. ROR icon National Institute for Astrophysics
  • 4. ROR icon University of Hong Kong
  • 5. ROR icon Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory
  • 6. ROR icon University of Florence
  • 7. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Firenze
  • 8. ROR icon Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari
  • 9. ROR icon Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
  • 10. ROR icon Marshall Space Flight Center
  • 11. ROR icon Australia Telescope National Facility
  • 12. ROR icon Astronomical Observatory of Rome
  • 13. ROR icon Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
  • 14. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Pisa
  • 15. ROR icon University of Pisa
  • 16. ROR icon Roma Tre University
  • 17. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Torino
  • 18. ROR icon University of Turin
  • 19. ROR icon Universities Space Research Association
  • 20. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Roma II
  • 21. ROR icon University of Tübingen
  • 22. ROR icon Astronomical Institute
  • 23. ROR icon RIKEN
  • 24. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 25. ROR icon Yamagata University
  • 26. ROR icon Osaka University
  • 27. ROR icon University of British Columbia
  • 28. ROR icon Chiba University
  • 29. ROR icon University of Turku
  • 30. ROR icon Sapienza University of Rome
  • 31. ROR icon University of Rome Tor Vergata
  • 32. ROR icon Washington University in St. Louis
  • 33. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Napoli
  • 34. ROR icon Observatory of Strasbourg
  • 35. ROR icon Boston University
  • 36. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 37. ROR icon Nagoya University
  • 38. ROR icon Hiroshima University
  • 39. ROR icon Louisiana State University
  • 40. ROR icon Pennsylvania State University
  • 41. ROR icon Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
  • 42. ROR icon Brera Astronomical Observatory
  • 43. ROR icon University of Padua
  • 44. ROR icon University of Maryland, College Park
  • 45. ROR icon University College London
  • 46. ROR icon University of Amsterdam

Abstract

We describe IXPE polarization observations of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) MSH 15−52, the "Cosmic Hand." We find X-ray polarization across the PWN, with B-field vectors generally aligned with filamentary X-ray structures. High-significance polarization is seen in arcs surrounding the pulsar and toward the end of the "jet," with polarization degree PD > 70%, thus approaching the maximum allowed synchrotron value. In contrast, the base of the jet has lower polarization, indicating a complex magnetic field at significant angle to the jet axis. We also detect significant polarization from PSR B1509−58 itself. Although only the central pulse phase bin of the pulse has high individual significance, flanking bins provide lower-significance detections and, in conjunction with the X-ray image and radio polarization, can be used to constrain rotating vector model solutions for the pulsar geometry.

Copyright and License

© 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.

Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

 

Acknowledgement

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a joint US and Italian mission. The US contribution is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and led and managed by its Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), with industry partner Ball Aerospace (contract NNM15AA18C). The Italian contribution is supported by the Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, ASI) through contract ASI-OHBI-2017-12-I.0, agreements ASI-INAF-2017-12-H0 and ASI-INFN-2017.13-H0, and its Space Science Data Center (SSDC) with agreements ASI-INAF-2022-14-HH.0 and ASI-INFN 2021-43-HH.0, and by the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Italy. This research used data products provided by the IXPE Team (MSFC, SSDC, INAF, and INFN) and distributed with additional software tools by the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Funding for this work was provided in part by contract NNM17AA26C from the MSFC to Stanford and 80MSFC17C0012 to MIT in support of the IXPE project. Support for this work was provided in part by NASA through the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO)contract SV3-73016 to MIT for support of the Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC), which is operated by SAO for and on behalf of NASA under contract NAS8-03060. C.-Y.N. and Y.-J.Y. are supported by a GRF grant of the Hong Kong Government under HKU 17305419. N.B. was supported by the INAF MiniGrant "PWNnumpol—Numerical Studies of Pulsar Wind Nebulae in The Light of IXPE."

Facilities

ATCA - Australia Telescope Compact Array, CXO - Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite, IXPE -

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Additional details

Related works

Is new version of
Discussion Paper: arXiv:2309.16067 (arXiv)

Funding

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NNM15AA18C
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
ASI-OHBI-2017-12-I.0
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
ASI-INAF-2017-12-H0
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
ASI-INFN-2017.13-H0
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
ASI-INAF-2022-14-HH.0
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
ASI-INFN 2021-43-HH.0
National Institute for Astrophysics
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NNM17AA26C
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80MSFC17C0012
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
SV3-73016
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NAS8-03060
University of Hong Kong
HKU 17305419

Dates

Accepted
2023-09-13
Available
2023-10-23
Published

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA)
Publication Status
Published