Search for the elusive optical counterpart of PSR J0537-6910 with the HST Advanced Camera for Surveys

Abstract

We present the results of deep, high-resolution, multi-band optical observations of the field of the young (~ 5,000 yrs) 16 ms X-ray pulsar PSR J0537$-$6910 performed with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Although a few new potential counterparts have been detected within or close to the revised Chandra X-ray error circle (~1 arcsec) of the pulsar, only two of them (with magnitudes m_{814W} ~ 23.9 and m_{814W} ~ 24.2) show indications of a peculiar spectrum which could be related to optical emission from the pulsar. This might be true also for a third, fainter, candidate detected only in one filter (with magnitude m_{814W} ~ 26.7). If either of the two brighter candidates is indeed the actual counterpart, the optical output of PSR J0537-6910 would make it similar to young Crab-like pulsars. If not, it would mean that PSR J0537-6910 is significantly underluminous with respect to all pulsars detected in the optical

arXiv comment7 pages, 5 figures, Astronomy & Astrophysics, in press

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• The second US Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC2)
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Cited by in corpus (9)

• A Chandra/ACIS Study of 30 Doradus I. Superbubbles and Supernova Remnants
• A Chandra/ACIS Study of 30 Doradus II. X-ray Point Sources in the Massive Star Cluster R136 and Beyond
• CHANDRA ACIS Spectroscopy of N157B -- A Young Composite Supernova Remnant in a Superbubble
• Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project. IV. The extinction law
• HST/WFPC2 observations of the LMC pulsar PSR B0540-69
• Studies of Neutron Stars at Optical/IR Wavelengths
• The first ultraviolet detection of the Large Magellanic Cloud pulsar PSR B0540-69 and its multi-wavelength properties
• Searching for the optical counterparts of two young gamma-ray pulsars
• Pulsar-driven Jets in Supernovae, Gamma-Ray Bursts, and the Universe