VLT observations of the two Fermi pulsars PSR J1357-6429 and PSR J1048-5832

Abstract

Optical observations of pulsars are crucial to study the neutron star properties, from the structure and composition of the interior, to the properties and geometry of the magnetosphere. Historically, X and gamma-ray observations have paved the way to the pulsar optical identifications. The launch of Fermi opened new perspectives in the optical-to-gamma-ray studies of neutron stars, with the detection of more than 80 pulsars. Here, we aim to search for optical emission from two Fermi pulsars which are interesting targets on the basis of their spin-down age, energetics, and distance: PSR J1357-6429and PSR J1048-5832. The two pulsars and their pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) are also detected in X-rays by Chandra and XMM. No deep optical observations of these two pulsars have been reported so far. We used multi-band optical images (V,R,I) taken with the VLT and available in the European Southern Observatory (ESO) archive to search for, or put tight constraints to, their optical emission. We re-assessed the positions of the two pulsars from the analyses of all the available Chandra observations and the comparison with the published radio coordinates. For PSR J1357-6429, this yielded a tentative proper motion mu=0.17+/-0.055 "/yr (70+/-15 deg position angle). We did not detect candidate counterparts to PSR J1357-6429 and PSR J1048-5832 down to V~27 and ~27.6, respectively, although for the former we found a possible evidence for a faint, unresolved object at the Chandra position. Our limits imply an efficiency in converting spin-down power into optical luminosity <7x10^{-7} and <6x10^{-6}, respectively, possibly close to that of the Vela pulsar.

12 pages, 10 figures, Astronomy and Astrophysics, in press

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• The Second Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-ray Pulsars
• The Young Pulsar J1357-6429 and Its Pulsar Wind Nebula
• Discovery of gamma and X-ray pulsations from the young and energetic PSR J1357-6429 with Fermi and XMM-Newton
• Possible optical counterpart of PSR J1357-6429
• Observations of three young gamma-ray pulsars with the Gran Telescopio Canarias
• Deep optical observations of the gamma-ray pulsar PSR J0007+7303 in the CTA 1 supernova remnant
• VLT Suzaku observations of the Fermi pulsar PSR J1028-5819
• Optical Observations of PSR J0205+6449 - the next optical pulsar?
• Near-infrared observations of PSR J1357-6429
• New VLT observations of the Fermi pulsar PSR J1048-5832
• Deep optical imaging of the gamma-ray pulsar J1048-5832 with the VLT
• Observations of PSR J1357-6429 at 2.1 GHz with the Australia Telescope Compact Array
• Searching for the optical counterparts of two young gamma-ray pulsars