Hard X-ray timing and spectral characteristics of the energetic pulsar PSR J0205+6449 in supernova remnant 3C58

Abstract

PSR J0205+6449 is a young rotation-powered pulsar in SNR 3C 58. It is one of only three young (<10,000 year old) pulsars which are so far detected in the radio and the classical X-ray bands, as well as at hard X-rays above 20 keV and at high-energy (>100 MeV) $\gamma$-rays. The other two young pulsars are the Crab and PSR B1509-58. Our aim is to derive the timing and spectral characteristics of PSR J0205+6449 over the broad X-ray band from ~0.5 to ~270 keV. We used all publicly available RXTE observations of PSR J0205+6449 to first generate accurate ephemerides over the period September 30, 2000 - March 18, 2006. Next, phase-folding procedures yielded pulse profiles using data from RXTE PCA and HEXTE, and XMM-Newton EPIC PN. While our timing solutions are consistent with earlier results, our work shows sharper structures in the PCA X-ray profile. The X-ray pulse profile consists of two sharp pulses, separated in phase by 0.488(2), which can be described with 2 asymmetric Lorentzians, each with the rising wing steeper than the trailing wing, and full-width-half-maximum 1.41(5) ms and 2.35(22) ms, respectively. We find an indication for a flux increase by a factor ~2, about 3.5 sigma above the time-averaged value, for the second, weaker pulse during a two-week interval, while its pulse shape did not change. The spectrum of the pulsed X-ray emission is of non-thermal origin, exhibiting a power-law shape with photon index Gamma = 1.03(2) over the energy band ~0.5 to ~270 keV. In the energy band covered with the PCA (~3-30 keV) the spectra of the two pulses have the same photon index, namely, 1.04(3) and 1.10(8), respectively.

10 pages; 7 figures (2 in color), resubmitted to A&A, including referee comments

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• The soft gamma-ray pulsar population: an high-energy overview
• A Thorough Investigation of Distance and Age of the Pulsar Wind Nebula 3C58
• GRIPS - Gamma-Ray Imaging, Polarimetry and Spectroscopy
• Spectral characterization of the non-thermal X-ray emission of gamma-ray pulsars
• {\it NuSTAR} hard X-ray studies of the pulsar wind nebula 3C~58
• XMM-Newton Observations of Young and Energetic Pulsar J2022+3842
• Optical Observations of PSR J0205+6449 - the next optical pulsar?
• A polarized view of the young Pulsar Wind Nebula 3C 58 with IXPE
• Multi-wavelength emission region of gamma-ray emitting pulsars
• A high-magnetic-field radio pulsar survey with Swift/XRT