Young Neutron Stars and Their Wind Nebulae

Abstract

With Teragauss magnetic fields, surface gravity sufficiently strong to significantly modify light paths, central densities higher than that of a standard nucleus, and rotation periods of only hundredths of a second, young neutron stars are sites of some of the most extreme physical conditions known in the Universe. They generate magnetic winds with particles that are accelerated to energies in excess of a TeV. These winds form synchrotron-emitting bubbles as the particle stream is eventually decelerated to match the general expansion caused by the explosion that formed the neutron stars. The structure of these pulsar wind nebulae allow us to infer properties of the winds and the pulsating neutron stars themselves. The surfaces of the the stars radiate energy from the rapidly cooling interiors where the physical structure is basically unknown because of our imprecise knowledge of the strong interaction at ultrahigh densities. Here I present a summary of recent measurements that allow us to infer the birth properties of neutron stars and to probe the nature of their winds, the physics of their atmospheres, and the structure of their interiors.

17 pages, 6 figures, kapproc.cls, procps.sty. To appear in the NATO-ASI proceedings "The Electromagnetic Spectrum of Neutron Stars", June 7-18 2004, Marmaris, Turkey (Eds. A. Baykal, S.K. Yerli, M. Gilfanov, S. Grebenev)

References in corpus (15)

• Minimal Cooling of Neutron Stars: A New Paradigm
• The Vela Pulsar and its Synchrotron Nebula
• Pulsar Jets: Implications for Neutron Star Kicks and Initial Spins
• New Constraints on the Structure and Evolution of the Pulsar Wind Nebula 3C 58
• Neutron star cooling
• New Constraints on Neutron Star Cooling from Chandra Observations of 3C58
• Discovery of X-ray Pulsations from the Compact Central Source in the Supernova Remnant 3C 58
• Chandra Observation of SNR G54.1+0.3 -- a Close Cousin of the Crab Nebula
• Chandra Observations of G11.2-0.3: Implications for Pulsar Ages
• Magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability for Pulsar Wind Nebulae in expanding Supernova Remnants
• Discovery of a 136 millisecond radio and X-ray pulsar in SNR G54.1+0.3
• The X-ray nebula of the filled center supernova remnant 3C58 and its interaction with the environment
• An X-Ray Pulsar in the Oxygen-Rich Supernova Remnant G292.0+1.8
• Pulsar Wind Nebulae: Theoretical Aspects and Observational Constraints
• Isolated Neutron Stars