First Detection of a Pulsar Bow Shock Nebula in Far-UV: PSR J0437-4715

Abstract

Pulsars traveling at supersonic speeds are often accompanied by cometary bow shocks seen in Halpha. We report on the first detection of a pulsar bow shock in the far-ultraviolet (FUV). We detected it in FUV images of the nearest millisecond pulsar J0437-4715 obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. The images reveal a bow-like structure positionally coincident with part of the previously detected Halpha bow shock, with an apex at 10" ahead of the moving pulsar. Its FUV luminosity, L(1250-2000 A) ~ 5x10^28 erg/s, exceeds the Halpha luminosity from the same area by a factor of 10. The FUV emission could be produced by the shocked ISM matter or, less likely, by relativistic pulsar wind electrons confined by strong magnetic field fluctuations in the bow shock. In addition, in the FUV images we found a puzzling extended (~3" in size) structure overlapping with the limb of the bow shock. If related to the bow shock, it could be produced by an inhomogeneity in the ambient medium or an instability in the bow shock. We also report on a previously undetected X-ray emission extending for about 5" ahead of the pulsar, possibly a pulsar wind nebula created by shocked pulsar wind, with a luminosity L(0.5-8 keV) ~ 3x10^28 erg/s.

Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (8)

• The microphysics of collisionless shock waves
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• X-ray Observations of Parsec-Scale Tails behind Two Middle-Aged Pulsars
• On the X-ray feature associated with the Guitar Nebula
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• Electron Density Structure of the Local Galactic Disk
• Hubble Space Telescope detection of the millisecond pulsar J2124-3358 and its far-ultraviolet bow shock nebula
• Old but still warm: Far-UV detection of PSR B0950+08
• On the origin of jet-like features in bow shock pulsar wind nebulae
• GeV-TeV Cosmic Ray Leptons in the Solar System from the Bow Shock Wind Nebula of the Nearest Millisecond Pulsar J0437-4715
• Full-3D relativistic MHD simulations of Bow Shock Pulsar Wind Nebulae: dynamics
• Full-3D relativistic MHD simulations of bow shock pulsar wind nebulae: emission and polarization
• An In Situ Study of Turbulence Near Stellar Bow Shocks
• A Laminar Model for the Magnetic Field Structure in Bow-Shock Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• 3D Relativistic MHD Simulations of Pulsar Bow Shock Nebulae
• The middle-aged pulsar PSR J1741-2054 and its bow-shock nebula in far ultraviolet
• On the contribution of the bow shock pulsar wind nebula PSR J0437-4715 to the observed fluxes of GeV-TeV positrons and antiprotons