The X-ray Spectrum of the Plerionic System PSR B1509-58/MSH 15-52

Abstract

We present the results of observations of the PSR B1509$-$58/MSH 15$-$52 system in X-rays ($2-250$ keV) by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. The spectra of the peak of the pulsed component (radio phase $0.17-0.53$) is fit by a power law of photon index $1.36\pm 0.01$, with no evidence of a high energy spectral break seen up to $\sim 200$ keV. For the off-pulse spectral component, the spectrum from $2-250$ keV is fit by a power law of photon index $2.215\pm 0.005$. An iron emission line at 6.7 keV with an equivalent width of 129 eV improves the fit, but only at a marginal significance. Thermal bremsstrahlung and Raymond-Smith models produce much worse fits to the unpulsed data. The lack of a high energy spectral break in the pulsed emission implies an efficiency of $\ge 3$ in the conversion of pulsar spindown energy to pulsed X-rays in the system.

arXiv commentAccepted by ApJ Letters, 18 pages, 4 postscript figures

References in corpus (1)

• Photon Splitting Cascades in Gamma-Ray Pulsars and the Spectrum of PSR1509-58

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• RXTE Absolute Timing Results for the Pulsars B1821-24 and B1509-58
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• Limits from the Hubble Space Telescope on a Point Source in SN 1987A
• X-ray Phase-Resolved Spectroscopy of PSRs B0531+21, B1509-58, and B0540-69 with RXTE
• Long-Term X-ray Monitoring of the Young Pulsar PSR B1509-58
• Observations of Energetic High Magnetic Field Pulsars with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• Very High-Energy Gamma-Ray Observations of PSR B1509-58 with the CANGAROO 3.8m Telescope
• The hard X-ray emission from the complex SNR MSH 15-52 observed by BeppoSAX
• High-energy particles in the wind nebula of pulsar B1509-58 as seen by INTEGRAL
• Chandra Phase-Resolved Spectroscopy of the High Magnetic Field Pulsar B1509-58
• NuSTAR observations of the young, energetic radio pulsar PSR B1509-58
• Discovery of a New 89 Second X-ray Pulsar XTE J1906+09
• Mechanism of the X-ray and Soft Gamma-ray Emissions from High Magnetic Field Pulsar: PSR B1509-58
• Observation of an extended VHE gamma-ray emission from MSH 15-52 with CANGAROO-III
• On the age of PSR B1509-58
• VHE Gamma-ray supernova remnants
• BeppoSAX observations of rotation-powered pulsars
• High-resolution Radio Study of Pulsar Wind Nebula MSH 15-52 and Supernova Remnant RCW 89