Spectral Break of Energetic Pulsar Wind Nebulae Detected with Wideband X-ray Observations

Abstract

Pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) are one of the most energetic galactic sources with bright emissions from radio waves to very high-energy gamma-rays. We perform wideband X-ray spectroscopy of four energetic PWNe, N157B, PSR J1813-1749, PSR J1400-6325, and G21.5-0.9, with the Suzaku, Chandra, NuSTAR, and Hitomi observatories. A significant spectral break or cutoff feature is found in the hard X-ray band for all the samples, except for N157B. The break energies in the broken power-law fitting are in the range of 4--14 keV, whereas the cutoff energies in the cutoff power-law fitting are at 22 keV or higher. The break or cutoff energy does not show a significant correlation with either the spin-down energy or characteristic age of the hosting pulsars. A possible correlation is found between the photon index change in the broken power-law fitting and the X-ray emitting efficiency of the pulsars, although its significance is not high enough to be conclusive. We discuss what determines the break parameters based on simple models.

21 pages, 22 figures, PASJ, accepted

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• New Hard X-Ray and Multiwavelength Study of the PeVatron Candidate PWN G0.9+0.1 in the Galactic Center Region