Hubble Space Telescope detection of the double pulsar system J0737-3039 in the far-ultraviolet

Abstract

We report on detection of the double pulsar system J0737-3039 in the far-UV with the ACS/SBC detector aboard HST. We measured the energy flux F = 4.5+/-1.0e-17 erg cm-2s-1 in the 1250-1550 AA band, which corresponds to the extinction-corrected luminosity L~1.5e28 erg s-1 for the distance d=1.1 kpc and a plausible reddening E(B-V)=0.1. If the detected emission comes from the entire surface of one of the neutron stars with a 13 km radius, the surface blackbody temperature is in the range T~2-5e5 K for a reasonable range of interstellar extinction. Such a temperature requires an internal heating mechanism to operate in old neutron stars, or it might be explained by heating of the surface of the less energetic Pulsar B by the relativistic wind of Pulsar A. If the far-UV emission is non-thermal (e.g., produced in the magnetosphere of Pulsar A), its spectrum exhibits a break between the UV and X-rays.

13 pages, 3 figures; submitted to ApJ-L

References in corpus (8)

• The Neutron Star Mass Distribution
• On Pulsar Distance Measurements and their Uncertainties
• Implications of a VLBI Distance to the Double Pulsar J0737-3039A/B
• The geometry of the double-pulsar system J0737-3039 from systematic intensity variations
• X-ray emission from the double neutron star binary B1534+12: Powered by the pulsar wind?
• Age constraints in the double pulsar system J0737-3039
• The very soft X-ray spectrum of the Double Pulsar System J0737-3039
• PSR J0737-3039: Interacting Pulsars in X-Rays

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Hubble Space Telescope detection of the millisecond pulsar J2124-3358 and its far-ultraviolet bow shock nebula
• The first ultraviolet detection of the Large Magellanic Cloud pulsar PSR B0540-69 and its multi-wavelength properties
• Long-term study of the Double Pulsar J0737-3039 with XMM-Newton: spectral analysis