Proper Motion of the High-Velocity Pulsar in SNR MSH 15-56

Abstract

We present a measurement of the proper motion of the presumed pulsar in the evolved composite supernova remnant (SNR) MSH 15-56 whose pulsar wind nebula (PWN) has been disrupted by the supernova (SN) reverse shock. Using Chandra X-ray observations acquired over a baseline of 15 years, we measure a pulsar velocity of 720 (+290/-215) km/s and a direction of motion of 14 +/- 22 degrees west of south. We use this measurement to constrain a hydrodynamical model for the evolution of this system and find that its morphology is well-described by an SNR expanding in an ambient density gradient that increases from east to west. The effect of the density gradient and the pulsar's motion is an asymmetric interaction between the SN reverse shock and the PWN that displaces the bulk of the PWN material away from the pulsar, towards the northeast. The simulation is consistent with an SNR age of 11,000 years, an SN ejecta mass of 10 solar masses, and an average surrounding density of 0.4 cm^-3. However, a combination of a higher SN ejecta mass and ambient density can produce a similar SNR morphology at a later age.

Accepted to ApJ

References in corpus (3)

• Geminga's puzzling pulsar wind nebula
• Comparing Neutron Star Kicks to Supernova Remnant Asymmetries
• Evolution of a Pulsar Wind Nebula within a Composite Supernova Remnant

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Investigation of the asteroid-neutron star collision model for the repeating fast radio bursts
• The Proper Motion of the Pulsar J1124-5916 in the Galactic Supernova Remnant G292.0+1.8
• Natal kicks of compact objects
• A study of the composite supernova remnant MSH 15-56 with Suzaku
• Updated Proper Motion of the Neutron Star in the Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A
• High-resolution Radio Study of Pulsar Wind Nebula MSH 15-52 and Supernova Remnant RCW 89