A Shell of Thermal X-ray Emission Associated with the Young Crab-like Remnant 3C58

Abstract

Deep X-ray imaging spectroscopy of the bright pulsar wind nebula 3C58 confirms the existence of an embedded thermal X-ray shell surrounding the pulsar PSR J0205+6449. Radially resolved spectra obtained with the XMM-Newton telescope are well-characterized by a power-law model with the addition of a soft thermal emission component in varying proportions. These fits reproduce the well-studied increase in the spectral index with radius attributed to synchrotron burn-off of high energy electrons. Most interestingly, a radially resolved thermal component is shown to map out a shell-like structure ~6' in diameter. The presence of a strong emission line corresponding to the Ne IX He-like transition requires an overabundance of ~3 x [Ne/Ne(sun)] in the Raymond-Smith plasma model. The best-fit temperature kT ~ 0.23 keV is essentially independent of radius for the derived column density of N_H = (4.2 +/- 0.1)E21 per cm squared. Our result suggests that thermal shells can be obscured in the early evolution of a supernova remnant by non-thermal pulsar wind nebulae emission; the luminosity of the 3C58 shell is more than an order of magnitude below the upper limit on a similar shell in the Crab Nebula. We find the shell centroid to be offset from the pulsar location. If this neutron star has a velocity similar to that of the Crab pulsar, we derive an age of 3700 yr and a velocity vector aligned with the long axis of the PWN. The shell parameters and pulsar offset add to the accumulating evidence that 3C58 is not the remnant of the supernova of CE 1181.

7 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, Latex emulateapj style. To appear in the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (2)

• Neon Abundances in B-Stars of the Orion Association: Solving the Solar Model Problem?
• Radio Images of 3C 58: Expansion and Motion of its Wisp

Cited by in corpus (11)

• The gas-to-extinction ratio and the gas distribution in the Galaxy
• The Infrared Detection of the Pulsar Wind Nebula in the Galactic Supernova Remnant 3C 58
• NuSTAR study of Hard X-Ray Morphology and Spectroscopy of PWN G21.5-0.9
• Discovery of TeV gamma-ray emission from the pulsar wind nebula 3C 58 by MAGIC
• Diffusive Synchrotron Radiation from Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Supernovae Producing Unbound Binaries and Triples
• Chandra Confirmation of a Pulsar Wind Nebula in DA 495
• A Comprehensive Study of the Spectral Variation and the Brightness Profile of Young Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Optical Observations of PSR J0205+6449
• Revealing Hidden Variability in PWNe With Spectral Index Maps
• A polarized view of the young Pulsar Wind Nebula 3C 58 with IXPE