Numerical simulations of mass loading in the tails of Bow Shock Pulsar Wind Nebulae

Abstract

When a pulsar is moving through a partially ionized medium, a fraction of neutral Hydrogen atoms penetrate inside the pulsar wind and can be photo-ionized by the nebula UV radiation. The resulting protons remains attached to the magnetic field of the light leptonic pulsar wind enhancing its inertia and changing the flow dynamics of the wind. We present here the first numerical simulations of such effect in the tails of bow shock nebulae. We produce a set of different models representative of pulsars moving in the interstellar medium with different velocities, from highly subsonic to supersonic, by means of 2D hydrodynamic relativistic simulations. We compare the different tail morphologies with results from theoretical models of mass loading in bow shocks. As predicted by analytical models we observe a fast sideways expansion of the tail with the formation of secondary shocks in the ISM. This effect could be at the origin of the head-and-shoulder morphology observed in many BSPWNe.

7 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

References in corpus (12)

• Geminga's puzzling pulsar wind nebula
• Pulsar Wind Nebulae Created by Fast-Moving Pulsars
• Smashing the Guitar: An Evolving Neutron Star Bow Shock
• X-ray Observations of Parsec-Scale Tails behind Two Middle-Aged Pulsars
• Three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of asymmetric pulsar wind bow shocks
• Hubble Space Telescope detection of the millisecond pulsar J2124-3358 and its far-ultraviolet bow shock nebula
• Chandra observations of the pulsar PSR B1929+10 and its environment
• Deep Chandra Observations of the Pulsar Wind Nebula Created by PSR B0355+54
• Capturing the 3D Motion of an Infalling Galaxy via Fluid Dynamics
• Escape of High Energy Particles from Bow-Shock Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Bow-shock Pulsar Wind Nebulae Passing Through Density Discontinuities
• Investigating CXOU J163802.6-471358: a new pulsar wind nebula in the Norma region?

Cited by in corpus (5)

• 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
• From young to old: the evolutionary path of Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Evolved Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Fast moving pulsars as probes of interstellar medium