The X-ray Spectrum of the Vela Pulsar Resolved with Chandra

Abstract

We report the results of the spectral analysis of two observations of the Vela pulsar with the Chandra X-ray observatory. The spectrum of the pulsar does not show statistically significant spectral lines in the observed 0.25-8.0 keV band. Similar to middle-aged pulsars with detected thermal emission, the spectrum consists of two distinct components. The softer component can be modeled as a magnetic hydrogen atmosphere spectrum - for the pulsar magnetic field $B=3\times 10^{12}$ G and neutron star mass $M=1.4M_{\odot }$ and radius $R^{\infty }=13$ km, we obtain $\tef^\infty =0.68\pm 0.03$ MK, $L_{\mathrm{bol}}^{\infty }=(2.6\pm 0.2)\times 10^{32}$ erg s${}^{-1}$, $d=210\pm 20$ pc (the effective temperature, bolometric luminosity, and radius are as measured by a distant observer). The effective temperature is lower than that predicted by standard neutron star cooling models. A standard blackbody fit gives $T^{\infty }=1.49\pm 0.04$ MK, $L_{\mathrm{bol}}^{\infty }=(1.5\pm 0.4)\times 10^{32}{d}_{250}^2$ erg s${}^{-1}$ ($d_{250}$ is the distance in units of 250 pc); the blackbody temperature corresponds to a radius, $R^{\infty }=(2.1\pm 0.2)d_{250}$ km, much smaller than realistic neutron star radii. The harder component can be modeled as a power-law spectrum, with parameters depending on the model adopted for the soft component - $\gamma =1.5\pm 0.3$, $L_x=(1.5\pm 0.4)\times 10^{31}{d}_{250}^2$ erg s${}^{-1}$ and $\gamma =2.7\pm 0.4$, $L_x=(4.2\pm 0.6)\times 10^{31}{d}_{250}^2$ erg s${}^{-1}$ for the hydrogen atmosphere and blackbody soft component, respectively ($\gamma$ is the photon index, $L_x$ is the luminosity in the 0.2--8 keV band). The extrapolation of the power-law component of the former fit towards lower energies matches the optical flux at $\gamma \simeq 1.35$--1.45.

Submitted to ApJ, three figures; color figure 1 can be found at http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/~zavlin/pub_list.html

Cited by in corpus (137)

• Strange Quark Matter and Compact Stars
• Neutron Star Cooling
• Minimal Cooling of Neutron Stars: A New Paradigm
• Re-examining the X-Ray versus Spin-Down Luminosity Correlation of Rotation Powered Pulsars
• The Vela Pulsar's proper motion and parallax derived from VLBI observations
• Discovery of absorption features in the X-ray spectrum of an isolated neutron star
• Is RX J185635-375 a Quark Star?
• The Variable Jet of the Vela Pulsar
• New Constraints on the Structure and Evolution of the Pulsar Wind Nebula 3C 58
• Neutron star cooling
• Variability of the Vela Pulsar-wind Nebula Observed with Chandra
• Thermal structure and cooling of neutron stars with magnetized envelopes
• The distance to the Vela pulsar gauged with HST parallax oservations
• Bare Quark Stars or Naked Neutron Stars ? The Case of RX J1856.5-3754
• Surface Emission Properties of Strongly Magnetic Neutron Stars
• A Strong, Broad Absorption Feature in the X-ray Spectrum of the Nearby Neutron Star RX J1605.3+3249
• X-ray Radiation from the Millisecond Pulsar J0437-4715
• Proper motion, age and initial spin period of PSR J0538+2817 in S147
• Pulsar wind nebulae with bow shocks: non-thermal radiation and cosmic ray leptons
• The impact of magnetic field on the thermal evolution of neutron stars
• X-ray emission from the old pulsar B0950+08
• The soft gamma-ray pulsar population: an high-energy overview
• The Chandra LETGS high resolution X-ray spectrum of the isolated neutron star RX J1856.5-3754
• Chandra X-ray Imaging Spectroscopy of the Young Supernova Remnant Kesteven 75
• Evidence for Heating of Neutron Stars by Magnetic Field Decay
• Pulse phase variations of the X-ray spectral features in the radio-quiet neutron star 1E 1207-5209
• XMM-Newton observations of PSR B1823-13: An asymmetric synchrotron nebula around a Vela-like pulsar
• Enhanced cooling of neutron stars via Cooper-pairing neutrino emission
• XMM-Newton and VLT observations of the isolated neutron star 1E 1207.4-5209
• Chandra X-ray Detection of the High-Magnetic-Field Radio Pulsar PSR J1718-3718
• On the origin of the torus and jet-like structures in the centre of Crab Nebula
• An X-ray Search for Compact Central Sources in Supernova Remnants I: SNRs G093.3+6.9, G315.4-2.3, G084.2+0.8, & G127.1+0.5
• Constraining the Spin-down of the Nearby Isolated Neutron Star RX J2143.0+0654
• Constraining the Spin-down of the Nearby Isolated Neutron Star RX J0806.4-4123, and Implications for the Population of Nearby Neutron Stars
• Nucleon Superfluidity vs Observations of Cooling Neutron Stars
• A two-dimensional electrodynamical outer gap model for gamma-ray pulsars: Gamma-ray spectrum
• Three Types of Cooling Superfluid Neutron Stars: Theory and Observations
• The Nearby Neutron Star RX J0720.4-3125 from Radio to X-rays
• Non-Thermal X-ray Properties of Rotation Powered Pulsars and Their Wind Nebulae
• Observations of PSR J2021+3651 and its X-ray Pulsar Wind Nebula G75.2+0.1
• The plerion nebula in IC 443: the XMM-Newton view
• The X-ray Structure of the Pulsar Bow Shock G189.22+2.90 in the Supernova Remnant IC 443
• Statistical theory of thermal evolution of neutron stars
• The Multi-Component Nature of the Vela Pulsar Nonthermal X-ray Spectrum
• The Pulsar Wind Nebula in G11.2-0.3
• Electrodynamics of Outer-Gap Accelerator: Formation of Soft Power-law Spectrum Between 100 MeV and 3 GeV
• Young isolated neutron stars from the Gould Belt
• The Magnificent Seven in the dusty prairie -- The role of interstellar absorption on the observed neutron star population
• Unusual Pulsed X-ray Emission from the Young, High Magnetic Field Pulsar PSR J1119-6127
• The young pulsar PSR B0540-69.3 and its synchrotron nebula in the optical and X-rays
• Neutron star cooling: Theoretical aspects and observational constraints
• Chandra Observation of PSR B1823-13 and its Pulsar Wind Nebula
• Pulsar Wind Nebulae and the X-Ray Emission of Non-Accreting Neutron Stars
• XMM-Newton Observations of PSR B1706-44
• Vela pulsar wind nebula x-rays are polarized to near the synchrotron limit
• Cooling of Small and Massive Hyperonic Stars
• Atomic calculation for the atmospheres of strongly-magnetized neutron stars
• The Nature of Coherent Radio Emission from Pulsars
• X-ray emission from PSR B1800-21, its wind nebula, and similar systems
• X-ray emission from PSR J1809-1917 and its pulsar wind nebula, possibly associated with the TeV gamma-ray source HESS J1809-193
• Cooling of Compact Stars with Color Superconducting Phase in Quark Hadron Mixed Phase
• Heat blanketing envelopes of neutron stars
• The Vela Pulsar in the Near-Infrared
• The helical jet of the Vela Pulsar
• Phase resolved spectroscopy of the Vela pulsar with XMM-Newton
• High-Energy Emission from Pulsars: The Polar Cap Scenario
• Inhomogeneous chiral symmetry breaking in dense neutron-star matter
• Detection of Pulsed X-ray Emission from PSR B1706-44
• The extended hard X-ray emission from the Vela Plerion
• Constraints on pulsar magnetospheric and wind parameters for the compact nebulae of Vela and PSR B1706-44
• High Spatial Resolution X-Ray Spectroscopy of the IC443 Pulsar Wind Nebula and Environs
• First X-ray observations of the young pulsar J1357-6429
• Rings and Jets around PSR J2021+3651: the `Dragonfly Nebula'
• Constraining Superfluidity in Dense Matter from the Cooling of Isolated Neutron Stars
• Evidence for surface cooling emission in the XMM-Newton spectrum of the X-ray pulsar PSR B2334+61
• The Cooling Neutron Star in 3C 58
• The Young Pulsar J1357-6429 and Its Pulsar Wind Nebula
• A new type of X-ray pulsar
• Chandra Detection of a Synchrotron Nebula Around the Vela-like Pulsar J1016-5857
• Stellar Binaries That Survive Supernovae
• Multicolor Photometry of the Vela Pulsar
• UV emission from young and middle-aged pulsars: Connecting X-rays with the optical
• H.E.S.S. and Suzaku observations of the Vela X pulsar wind nebula
• High-energy Emission from Pulsar Magnetospheres
• Multiwavelength spectroscopy of PSR B0656+14
• Optical observations of PSR J2021+3651 in the Dragonfly Nebula with the GTC
• Dark particle mass effects on neutron star properties from a short-range correlated hadronic model
• The Vela and Geminga pulsars in the mid-infrared
• Evaluating the Evidence of Multipolar Surface Magnetic Field in PSR J0108$-$1431
• Chandra and XMM-Newton Observations of the Vela-like Pulsar B1046-58
• TeV mu Neutrinos from Young Neutron Stars
• Thermal Relaxation of Dark Matter Admixed Neutron Star
• ${}^1$S${}_0$ Neutron Pairing vs Observations of Cooling Neutron Stars
• Search for the Optical Counterpart of the Vela Pulsar X-ray Nebula
• XMM-Newton observation of the nearby pulsar B1133+16
• Supernovae Producing Unbound Binaries and Triples
• Minimal models of cooling neutron stars with accreted envelopes
• HST optical polarimetry of the Vela pulsar & nebula
• Chandra Imaging of the Gamma-Ray Source GeV J1809-2327
• Flux predictions of high-energy neutrinos from pulsars
• Vela X at 31 GHz
• Neutrino luminosities and heat capacities of neutron stars in analytic form
• Hard X-ray timing and spectral characteristics of the energetic pulsar PSR J0205+6449 in supernova remnant 3C58
• Formation of giant plasmoids at the pulsar wind termination shock: A possible origin of the inner-ring knots in the Crab Nebula
• Near-infrared observations of Rotating Radio Transients
• Cooling of neutron stars with diffusive envelopes
• Discovery of X-ray emission from the young radio pulsar PSR J1357-6429
• Point X-ray sources in the SNR G 315.4-2.30 (MSH 14-63, RCW 86)
• The $\gamma$-ray pulsar J0633+0632 in X-rays
• Core-crust transition and crustal fraction of moment of inertia in neutron stars
• X-ray spectral analysis of the neutron star in SNR 1E 0102.2-7219
• The gamma-ray spectrum of Geminga and the inverse Compton model of pulsar high energy emission
• Radiation of Neutron Stars Produced by Superfluid Core
• XMM-Newton observations of the Vela pulsar
• Chandra X-Ray Observatory Observations of Neutron Stars: An Overview
• Possible TeV Source Candidates In The Unidentified EGRET Sources
• Searching for Debris Disks around Isolated Pulsars
• Observational connection of non-thermal X-ray emission from pulsars with their timing properties and thermal emission
• Symmetry of the Neutron and Proton Superfluidity Effects in Cooling Neutron Stars
• Chandra Observations of the field containing HESS J1616-508
• The power-law component of the X-ray emissions from pulsar wind nebulae and their pulsars
• Global X-Ray Properties of the Vela and Puppis A Supernova Remnants
• Strongly pulsed thermal X-rays from a single extended hot spot on PSR J2021+4026
• Neutron star crustal properties from relativistic mean-field models and bulk parameters effects
• PSR J1119-6127 and the X-ray Emission from High Magnetic Field Radio Pulsars
• Inner crust of neutron stars with mass-fitted Skyrme interaction
• Pulsar magnetospheric convulsions induced by an external magnetic field
• Hubble Space Telescope detection of the double pulsar system J0737-3039 in the far-ultraviolet
• XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of the unidentified Fermi-LAT source 3FGL J1016.5-6034: A Young Pulsar with a Nebula?
• A high-magnetic-field radio pulsar survey with Swift/XRT
• Thermal Evolution of Neutron Stars as a Probe of Physics beyond the Standard Model
• XMM-Newton and Canadian Galactic Plane Survey Observations of the Supernova Remnant G107.5-1.5
• Toward explanation of the X-ray - radio correlation in the Vela pulsar
• Production of high-energy μneutrinos from young neutron stars
• HST and VLT observations of Isolated Neutron Stars
• Isolated neutron stars: An astrophysical perspective
• Close by Compact Objects and Recent Supernovae in the Solar Vicinity