Additional evidence for a pulsar wind nebula in the heart of SN 1987A from multi-epoch X-ray data and MHD modeling

Abstract

Since the day of its explosion, supernova (SN) 1987A has been closely monitored to study its evolution and to detect its central compact relic. In fact, the formation of a neutron star is strongly supported by the detection of neutrinos from the SN. However, besides the detection in the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) data of a feature that is compatible with the emission arising from a proto-pulsar wind nebula (PWN), the only hint for the existence of such elusive compact object is provided by the detection of hard emission in NuSTAR data up to ~ 20 keV. We report on the simultaneous analysis of multi-epoch observations of SN 1987A performed with Chandra, XMM-Newton and NuSTAR. We also compare the observations with a state-of-the-art 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of SN 1987A. A heavily absorbed power-law, consistent with the emission from a PWN embedded in the heart of SN 1987A, is needed to properly describe the high-energy part of the observed spectra. The spectral parameters of the best-fit power-law are in agreement with the previous estimate, and exclude diffusive shock acceleration as a possible mechanism responsible for the observed non-thermal emission. The information extracted from our analysis are used to infer the physical characteristics of the pulsar and the broad-band emission of its nebula, in agreement with the ALMA data. Analysis of the synthetic spectra also show that, in the near future, the main contribution to Fe K emission line will originate in the outermost shocked ejecta of SN 1987A.

Accepted for publication in ApJ

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Searches for Continuous-Wave Gravitational Radiation
• Emission lines due to ionizing radiation from a compact object in the remnant of Supernova 1987A
• First Constraining Upper Limits on Gravitational Wave Emission from NS 1987A in SNR 1987A
• Latest Evolution of the X-Ray Remnant of SN 1987A: Beyond the Inner Ring
• Tracing the ejecta structure of SN 1987A: Insights and diagnostics from 3D MHD simulations
• Plasma heating and particle acceleration in collisionless shocks through astrophysical observations
• The TRAPUM Large Magellanic Cloud pulsar survey with MeerKAT I: Survey setup and first seven pulsar discoveries
• Polarized radio emission unveils the structure of the pre-supernova circumstellar magnetic field and the radio emission in SN1987A
• Investigating Time Evolution of Thermal Emission from the Putative Neutron Star in SN 1987A for 50+ Years
• Unusual X-ray Oxygen Line Ratios of SN 1987A Arising From the Absorption of Galactic Hot Interstellar Medium
• Measuring the initial mass of 44Ti in SN 1987A through the 44Sc emission line