Search for the optical counterpart of the nearby pulsar J0108-1431

Abstract

We present the results of first deep optical observations of the field of the old ($\sim 10^8$ yr), nearby, isolated pulsar J0108-1431, in an attempt to detect its optical counterpart. The observations were performed using the FORS1 instrument at the focus of the European Southern Observatory Antu Telescope of the VLT. Observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) were made to determine an accurate position for the radio pulsar at the current epoch. The imaging data, obtained in the V, B, and U passbands reveal no counterpart at the revised radio position down to $V\simeq 28$, $B\simeq 28.6$ and $U\simeq 26.4$. For a distance of 130 pc, estimated from the pulsar's dispersion measure, our constraints on the optical flux put an upper limit of $T=4.5\times 10^4$ K for the surface temperature of the neutron star, assuming a stellar radius $R_{\infty }=13$ km. Our new radio position allows us to place an upper limit on the pulsar proper motion of 82 mas yr${}^{-1}$ which, for d=130 pc, implies a transverse velocity $\la 50$ km sec${}^{-1}$.

15 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (3)

• VLBA Measurement of Nine Pulsar Parallaxes
• Multicolor Photometry of the Vela Pulsar
• Determination of limits on disc masses around six pulsars at 15 and 90 microns

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• Optical, ultraviolet, and infrared observations of isolated neutron stars
• Detection of X-ray Emission from the Very Old Pulsar J0108-1431
• A possible optical counterpart to the old nearby pulsar J0108-1431
• Studies of Neutron Stars at Optical/IR Wavelengths
• Searching for substellar companions of young isolated neutron stars
• Search for Optical Pulsations in PSR J0337+1715
• Deep optical observations of the fields of two nearby millisecond pulsars with the VLT
• Possible optical detection of a fast, nearby radio pulsar PSR B1133+16
• Hubble Space Telescope observations of the old pulsar PSR J0108-1431
• Internal heating and thermal emission from old neutron stars: Constraints on dense-matter and gravitational physics
• HST and VLT observations of Isolated Neutron Stars