HST multi-epoch imaging of the PSR B0540-69 system unveils a highly dynamic synchrotron nebula

Abstract

PSR B0540-69 is the Crab twin in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Age, energetic and overall behaviour of the two pulsars are very similar. The same is true for the general appearance of their pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). Analysis of Hubble Space Telescope images spanning 10 years unveiled significant variability in the PWN surrounding PSR B0540-69, with a hot spot moving at ~0.04c. Such behaviour, reminiscent of the variability observed in the Crab nebula along the counter-jet direction, may suggest an alternative scenario for the geometry of the system. The same data were used to assess the pulsar proper motion. The null displacement recorded over 10 y allowed us to set a 3sigma upper limit of 290 km/s to the pulsar velocity.

11 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

References in corpus (1)

• Proper Motion of the Crab Pulsar Revisited

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Imprints of the jittering jets explosion mechanism in the morphology of the supernova remnant SNR 0540-69.3
• Atacama Compact Array Observations of the Pulsar-Wind Nebula of SNR 0540-69.3
• Kinematics, structure and abundances of supernova remnant 0540-69.3
• Spatial Variations and Breaks in the Optical-NIR spectra of the Pulsar and PWN in SNR 0540-69.3