CaltechAUTHORS
Published December 22, 2022 | Version Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Vela pulsar wind nebula X-rays are polarized to near the synchrotron limit

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Guangxi University
  • 2. ROR icon Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology
  • 3. ROR icon Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory
  • 4. ROR icon University of Florence
  • 5. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Firenze
  • 6. ROR icon Stanford University
  • 7. ROR icon Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
  • 8. ROR icon Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari
  • 9. ROR icon Yamagata University
  • 10. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Torino
  • 11. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 12. ROR icon University of Maryland, Baltimore County
  • 13. ROR icon Astronomical Observatory of Rome
  • 14. ROR icon Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
  • 15. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Pisa
  • 16. ROR icon University of Pisa
  • 17. ROR icon Marshall Space Flight Center
  • 18. ROR icon Roma Tre University
  • 19. ROR icon University of Turin
  • 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 Osaka University
  • 26. ROR icon University of British Columbia
  • 27. ROR icon Chuo University
  • 28. ROR icon Boston University
  • 29. ROR icon St Petersburg University
  • 30. ROR icon Washington University in St. Louis
  • 31. ROR icon University of Turku
  • 32. ROR icon Observatory of Strasbourg
  • 33. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 34. ROR icon Nagoya University
  • 35. ROR icon Hiroshima University
  • 36. ROR icon University of Hong Kong
  • 37. ROR icon Pennsylvania State University
  • 38. ROR icon Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
  • 39. ROR icon Space Research Institute
  • 40. ROR icon Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
  • 41. ROR icon Brera Astronomical Observatory
  • 42. ROR icon University of Padua
  • 43. ROR icon University of Rome Tor Vergata
  • 44. ROR icon University College London
  • 45. ROR icon University of Amsterdam

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) and located inside an extended structure called Vela X, which is itself inside the supernova remnant. Previous X-ray observations revealed two prominent arcs that are bisected by a jet and counter jet. Radio maps have shown high linear polarization of 60% in the outer regions of the nebula. 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.

Additional Information

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2022. The IXPE is a joint US and Italian mission. The US contribution is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and is led and managed by the 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) that are distributed with additional software tools by the High-Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The research at Guangxi University was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 12133003). The research at Boston University was supported in part by National Science Foundation grant AST-2108622. I.A. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish 'Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación' (MCINN) through the 'Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa' award for the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC (SEV-2017-0709) and through grants AYA2016-80889-P and PID2019-107847RB-C44. Contributions. F.X. led the data analysis and the writing of the paper. A.D.M. and F.L.M. performed the spectropolarimetric analysis and contributed to the paper. F. Muleri and J.R. contributed to the data analysis and energy calibration of the dataset. K.L. and N.B. contributed to the data analysis and result interpretation. R.W.R. and L.L. helped to revise the manuscript. E. Costa, P. Soffitta, M.B., S.F., R.F., M. Pilia and A.T. contributed to the interpretation of the results and to text revisions. N.D.L., S.G., N.O., M.N. and E.W. performed independent analysis of the data. The other authors contributed to the design of the mission, to the calibration of the instrument, to the definition of its scientific case and to the planning of the observations. All of the authors provided inputs and comments on the manuscript. Data availability. IXPE data are available through the NASA's HEASARC data archive (https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov). Other derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on request. Source data are provided with this paper. Code availability. The High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) developed the HEASOFT (HEASARC Software). We used the HEASOFT v.6.30.1 package for the spectropolarimetric IXPE data analysis, which is available online (https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/heasoft/). The proper instrument response functions are provided by the IXPE Team as a part of the IXPE calibration database released on 14 March 2022 are and available in the HEASARC Calibration Database (https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/caldb/caldb_supported_missions.html). The software developed by IXPE collaboration is available publicly online (https://ixpeobssim.readthedocs.io/en/latest/?badge=latest). Information supporting the findings of this study is available from the corresponding author on request. The authors declare no competing interests.

Attached Files

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
120045
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20230314-846094500.78

Funding

NASA
NNM15AA18C
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI)
ASI-OHBI-2017-12-I.0
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI)
ASI-INAF-2017-12-H0
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI)
ASI-INFN-2017.13-H0
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI)
ASI-INAF-2022-14-HH.0
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI)
ASI-INFN 2021-43-HH.0
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China
12133003
NSF
AST-2108622
Severo Ochoa
SEV-2017-0709
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
AYA2016-80889-P
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
PID2019-107847RB-C44

Dates

Created
2023-06-01
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2023-06-01
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

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