Pulsar Wind Nebulae in the Chandra Era

Abstract

Pulsar winds shocked in the ambient medium produce spectacular nebulae observable from the radio through gamma-rays. The shape and the spectrum of a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) depend on the angular distribution, magnetization and energy spectrum of the wind streaming from the pulsar magnetosphere, as well as on the pulsar velocity and the properties of the ambient medium. The advent of Chandra, with its unprecedented angular resolution and high sensitivity, has allowed us not only to detect many new PWNe, but also study their spatial and spectral structure and dynamics, which has significantly advanced our understanding of these objects. Here we overview recent observational results on PWNe, with emphasis on Chandra observations.

15 pages, 5 tables, 10 figures. To appear in the proceedings of "40 Years of Pulsars: Millisecond Pulsars, Magnetars, and More", August 12-17, 2007, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Corrected typos in Table 1

Cited by in corpus (4)

• A dedicated Chandra ACIS observation of the central compact object in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant
• Discovery of extended X-ray emission around the highly magnetic RRAT J1819-1458
• Discovery of Pulsations from the Pulsar J0205+6449 in SNR 3C 58 with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope
• Detection of X-ray Emission from the Very Old Pulsar J0108-1431