Bow shocks around pulsars and neutron stars

Abstract

Pulsar wind nebulae are now well established as important probes both of neutron stars' relativistic winds and of the surrounding interstellar medium. Amongst this diverse group of objects, pulsar bow shocks have long been regarded as an oddity, only seen around a handful of rapidly moving neutron stars. However, recent efforts at optical, radio and X-ray wavelengths have identified many new pulsar bow shocks, and these results have consequently motivated renewed theoretical efforts to model these systems. Here I review the new results and ideas which have emerged on these spectacular systems, and explain how bow shocks and "Crab-like" nebulae now form a consistent picture within our understanding of pulsar winds.

12 pages, 2 embedded EPS figures, 1 GIF figure. Advances in Space Research, in press

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• A closer view of the IGR J11014-6103 outflows
• On the origin of jet-like features in bow shock pulsar wind nebulae
• Full-3D relativistic MHD simulations of Bow Shock Pulsar Wind Nebulae: dynamics
• Full-3D relativistic MHD simulations of bow shock pulsar wind nebulae: emission and polarization
• A detailed X-ray investigation of PSR J2021+4026 and $\gamma$-Cygni supernova remnant
• On the complex X-ray structure tracing the motion of Geminga
• A Laminar Model for the Magnetic Field Structure in Bow-Shock Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Escape of High Energy Particles from Bow-Shock Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Numerical simulations of mass loading in the tails of Bow Shock Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• 3D Relativistic MHD Simulations of Pulsar Bow Shock Nebulae
• Dynamical Effects of Colliding Outflows in Binary Systems
• Detecting floating black holes as they traverse the gas disk of the Milky Way