Chandra Monitoring of the J1809-1917 Pulsar Wind Nebula and Its Field

Abstract

PSR J1809-1917 is a young ($\tau =51$ kyr) energetic ($\dot{E}=1.8\times 10^{36}$ erg s${}^{-1}$) radio pulsar powering an X-ray pulsar wind nebula (PWN) that exhibits morphological variability. We report on the results of a new monitoring campaign by the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), carried out across 6 epochs with a $\sim$7-week cadence. The compact nebula can be interpreted as a jet-dominated outflow along the pulsar's spin axis. Its variability can be the result of Doppler boosting in the kinked jet whose shape changes with time (akin to the Vela pulsar jet). The deep X-ray image, composed of 405 ks of new and 131 ks of archival CXO data, reveals an arcminute-scale extended nebula (EN) whose axis of symmetry aligns with both the axis of the compact nebula and the direction toward the peak of the nearby TeV source HESS J1809-193. The EN's morphology and extent suggest that the pulsar is likely moving through the ambient medium at a transonic velocity. We also resolved a faint 7${}^{\prime }$-long nonthermal collimated structure protruding from the PWN. It is possibly another instance of a "misaligned outflow" (also known as a "kinetic jet") produced by high-energy particles escaping the PWN's confinement and tracing the interstellar magnetic field lines. Finally, taking advantage of the 536 ks exposure, we analyzed the point sources in the J1809 field and classified them using multiwavelength data. None of the classified sources in the field can reasonably be expected to produce the extended TeV flux in the region, suggesting that PSR J1809-1917 is indeed the counterpart to HESS/eHWC J1809-193.

23 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Classifying Unidentified X-ray Sources in the Chandra Source Catalog Using a Multiwavelength Machine-learning Approach
• HESS J1809$-$193: a halo of escaped electrons around a pulsar wind nebula?
• A NuSTAR and Chandra Investigation of the Misaligned Outflow of PSR J1101-6101 and the Lighthouse Pulsar Wind Nebula
• Revisiting the Chandra Observation on the Region of PSR J1809-1917: Indication of an X-ray Halo and Implication for the Origin of HESS J1809-193
• Observational connection of non-thermal X-ray emission from pulsars with their timing properties and thermal emission
• HESS J1809-193: Gamma-Ray Emission by Cosmic Rays from Past Explosion
• Signatures of extended radio emission from escaping electrons in the Lighthouse Nebula
• Self-confinement of relativistic pair beams in magnetized interstellar plasmas: the case of pulsar X-ray filaments