A closer view of the IGR J11014-6103 outflows

Abstract

The complex X-ray system IGR J11014-6103 (a.k.a. the Lighthouse nebula) is composed of a bow-shock pulsar wind nebula (PWN) as well as large-scale jet-like features, all launched by IGR J11014-6103 which is moving supersonically in the interstellar medium. Previous observations suggested that the jet features stem from a ballistic jet of relativistic particles. In order to confirm the nature of the jet and the marginally detected counter-jet, we obtained a new deep 250 ks Chandra observation of the Lighthouse nebula. We performed detailed spatial and spectral analysis of all X-ray components of the system. The X-ray PWN is now better resolved and shows a clear bi-modal morphology. The overall helical pattern of the main jet is confirmed. However, there are large deviations from a simple helical model at small and large scales. Significant extended emission is now detected, encompassing the main jet all along its length. The brightness dip of the main jet at ~50" distance from the pulsar is confirmed, the extended emission however prevents conclusions about the coherence at this position of the jet. The counter-jet is now detected at high statistical significance. In addition, we found two small-scale "arcs" departing from the pulsar towards the jets. We also looked for possible bow-shock emission in front of the pulsar, with a short VLT/FORS2 H-alpha observation. No clear emission is found, most likely because of contamination from a diffuse surrounding nebulosity. The results of our X-ray analysis show that current expectations from a ballistic nature of the jets can explain satisfactorily some of the observational evidences but cannot fully reproduce the observations. The alternative scenario (diffusion of particles along preexisting magnetic field lines in the surrounding medium) however also continues to suffer from conflicts with the observations.

11 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to A&A

References in corpus (20)

• Pulsar Wind Nebulae in the Chandra Era
• Getting Its Kicks: A VLBA Parallax for the Hyperfast Pulsar B1508+55
• Fermi acceleration in astrophysical jets
• Magnetic draping of merging cores and radio bubbles in clusters of galaxies
• Pulsar Parallaxes at 5 GHz with the Very Long Baseline Array
• Pulsar-Wind Nebulae: Recent Progress in Observations and Theory
• On the X-ray feature associated with the Guitar Nebula
• A cluster in a crowded environment: XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of A3558
• Proper motions of thermally emitting isolated neutron stars measured with Chandra
• Modeling the X-rays from the Central Compact Object PSR J1852+0040 in Kesteven 79: Evidence for a Strongly Magnetized Neutron Star
• Cosmic-ray positrons from millisecond pulsars
• X-ray analysis of the proper motion and pulsar wind nebula for PSR J1741-2054
• Mass-loading of bow shock pulsar wind nebulae
• High resolution HI and radio continuum observations of the SNR G290.1-0.8
• High-Energy X-ray Imaging of the Pulsar Wind Nebula MSH~15-52: Constraints on Particle Acceleration and Transport
• Discovery of X-ray Pulsations from the INTEGRAL Source IGR J11014-6103
• Global Distribution of Ionizing and Recombining Plasmas in the Supernova Remnant G290.1$-$0.8
• On the origin of the jet-like radio/X-ray morphology of G290.1-0.8
• Multi-wavelength analysis of the Galactic supernova remnant MSH 11-61A
• Detailed molecular observations toward the Double Helix Nebula

Cited by in corpus (26)

• On the TeV Halo Fraction in gamma-ray bright Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Pulsar wind nebulae with bow shocks: non-thermal radiation and cosmic ray leptons
• Pulsar Wind Nebulae Created by Fast-Moving Pulsars
• Pulsar-wind nebulae and magnetar outflows: observations at radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths
• Deep Chandra Observations of the Pulsar Wind Nebula Created by PSR B0355+54
• Kinetic "jets" from fast moving pulsars
• On the nature of radio filaments near the Galactic Center
• PSR J2030+4415's Remarkable Bow Shock, PWN and Filament
• NuSTAR and Chandra Observation of the Galactic Center Non-thermal X-ray Filament G0.13-0.11: A Pulsar Wind Nebula Driven Magnetic Filament
• Timing six energetic rotation-powered X-ray pulsars, including the fast-spinning young PSR J0058-7218 and Big Glitcher PSR J0537-6910
• Toward understanding the physical underpinnings of spatial and spectral morphologies of pulsar wind nebulae
• Chandra Monitoring of the J1809-1917 Pulsar Wind Nebula and Its Field
• The Long Filament of PSR J2030+4415
• A NuSTAR and Chandra Investigation of the Misaligned Outflow of PSR J1101-6101 and the Lighthouse Pulsar Wind Nebula
• XMM-Newton observations of a gamma-ray pulsar J0633+0632: pulsations, cooling and large-scale emission
• A Quarter Century of Guitar Nebula/Filament Evolution
• Numerical simulations of mass loading in the tails of Bow Shock Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Jet-like structures from PSR J1135-6055
• Observational connection of non-thermal X-ray emission from pulsars with their timing properties and thermal emission
• The two tails of PSR J2055+2539 as seen by Chandra: analysis of the nebular morphology and pulsar proper motion
• The power-law component of the X-ray emissions from pulsar wind nebulae and their pulsars
• Signatures of extended radio emission from escaping electrons in the Lighthouse Nebula
• Chandra measurements of the proper motion of the $\gamma$-ray pulsar J0633+0632
• Investigating the mysterious nature of 1LHAASO J1740+0948u through deep XMM-Newton observations
• The pulsar wind nebula around B1853+01 in X-rays
• Self-confinement of relativistic pair beams in magnetized interstellar plasmas: the case of pulsar X-ray filaments