UVOIR spectrum, X-ray emission, and proper motion of the isolated neutron star RX J2143.0+0654

Abstract

We observed the isolated neutron star RX J2143.0+0654 with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in the UVOIR wavelength range (0.14-1.7 $\hat{I}¼$m). The UV part is consistent with a Rayleigh-Jeans tail of a thermal spectrum, $f_{\hat{I}}½\propto \hat{I}{½}^2$, while a power-law spectrum, $f_{\hat{I}}½\propto \hat{I}{½}^{\hat{I}}\pm$ with $\hat{I}\pm \sim -0.8$, dominates in the NIR-optical. A joint fit of the UVOIR and contemporaneous X-ray spectra with a two-component blackbody with possible absorption features + power-law optical spectrum yields the following temperature and apparent radius of the colder component (which gives the main contribution in the UV): $k{T}_{\mathrm{cold}}\approx 45$ eV, $R_{\mathrm{cold}}\approx 6d_{260}$ km, where $d_{260}$ is the distance in units of 260 pc. The temperature and radius of the hotter component, $k{T}_{\mathrm{hot}}\approx 106$ eV and $R_{\mathrm{hot}}\approx 1.5d_{260}$ km, the parameters of an absorption feature at 0.74 keV, and the properties of X-ray pulsations, are the same as found in previous X-ray observations. In the NIR images the neutron star is possibly surrounded by extended emission with a characteristic size of $\sim 2^{\prime \prime }$ and flux densities of about 1.7 and 0.9 $\hat{I}¼$Jy at 1.54 and 1.15 $\hat{I}¼$m, respectively. Comparison with a previous HST observation in the optical 14 years ago shows a proper motion $\hat{I}¼\approx 6$ mas yr${}^{-1}$, which corresponds to a small transverse velocity of $7d_{260}$ km s${}^{-1}$. It is consistent with the hypothesis that the neutron star was born in the vicinity of the solar system about 0.5 Myr ago.

17 pages, 9 figures; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal