A new nearby pulsar wind nebula overlapping the RX J0852.0-4622 supernova remnant

Abstract

Energetic pulsars can be embedded in a nebula of relativistic leptons which is powered by the dissipation of the rotational energy of the pulsar. The object PSR J0855-4644 is an energetic and fast-spinning pulsar (Edot = 1.1x10^36 erg/s, P=65 ms) discovered near the South-East rim of the supernova remnant (SNR) RX J0852.0-4622 (aka Vela Jr) by the Parkes multibeam survey. The position of the pulsar is in spatial coincidence with an enhancement in X-rays and TeV gamma-rays, which could be due to its putative pulsar wind nebula (PWN). The purpose of this study is to search for diffuse non-thermal X-ray emission around PSR J0855-4644 to test for the presence of a PWN and to estimate the distance to the pulsar. An X-ray observation was carried out with the XMM-Newton satellite to constrain the properties of the pulsar and its nebula. The absorption column density derived in X-rays from the pulsar and from different regions of the rim of the SNR was compared with the absorption derived from the atomic (HI) and molecular (12CO) gas distribution along the corresponding lines of sight to estimate the distance of the pulsar and of the SNR. The observation has revealed the X-ray counterpart of the pulsar together with surrounding extended emission thus confirming the existence of a PWN. The comparison of column densities provided an upper limit to the distance of the pulsar PSR J0855-4644 and the SNR RX J0852.0-4622 (d<900 pc). Although both objects are at compatible distances, we rule out that the pulsar and the SNR are associated. With this revised distance, PSR J0855-4644 is the second most energetic pulsar, after the Vela pulsar, within a radius of 1 kpc and could therefore contribute to the local cosmic-ray e-/e+ spectrum.

10 pages, 9 Figures. Accepted for publication in A&A

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Cited by in corpus (19)

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• Distances, Radial Distribution and Total Number of Galactic Supernova Remnants
• Study of TeV shell supernova remnants at gamma-ray energies
• Deeper H.E.S.S. observations of Vela Junior (RX J0852.0$-$4622): Morphology studies and resolved spectroscopy
• A detailed study of the interstellar protons toward the TeV $\gamma$-ray SNR RX J0852.0$-$4622 (G266.2$-$1.2, Vela Jr.); a third case of the $\gamma$-rays and ISM spatial correspondence
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• X-ray and Rotational Luminosity Correlation and Magnetic Heating of the Radio Pulsars
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• A Morphological Study of the Supernova Remnant RX J0852.0-4622 (Vela Jr.)
• SRG/eROSITA and XMM-Newton observations of Vela Jr
• An XMM-Newton Study of the Mixed-Morphology Supernova Remnant G346.6-0.2
• What causes the absence of pulsations in Central Compact Objects in Supernova Remnants?
• Constraining the geometry of PSR J0855-4644: A nearby Pulsar Wind Nebula with Double Torus/Jet Morphology
• Global X-Ray Properties of the Vela and Puppis A Supernova Remnants
• Discovery of a radio nebula around PSR J0855-4644
• Constraining leptonic emission scenarios for the PeVatron candidate HESS J1702-420 with deep XMM-Newton observations
• Is PSR J0855$-$4644 responsible for the 1.4 TeV electron spectral bump hinted by DAMPE?