FERMI-LAT SEARCH FOR PULSAR WIND NEBULAE AROUND GAMMA-RAY PULSARS
- W. W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Department of Physics and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 (United States)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa, I-56127 Pisa (Italy)
- Laboratoire AIM, CEA-IRFU/CNRS/Universite Paris Diderot, Service d'Astrophysique, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif sur Yvette (France)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste, I-34127 Trieste (Italy)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Padova, I-35131 Padova (Italy)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia, I-06123 Perugia (Italy)
- Dipartimento di Fisica 'M. Merlin' dell'Universita e del Politecnico di Bari, I-70126 Bari (Italy)
- Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet, Ecole polytechnique, CNRS/IN2P3, Palaiseau (France)
The high sensitivity of the Fermi-LAT (Large Area Telescope) offers the first opportunity to study faint and extended GeV sources such as pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). After one year of observation the LAT detected and identified three PWNe: the Crab Nebula, Vela-X, and the PWN inside MSH 15-52. In the meantime, the list of LAT detected pulsars increased steadily. These pulsars are characterized by high energy loss rates ( E-dot ) from {approx}3 x 10{sup 33} erg s{sup -1} to 5 x 10{sup 38} erg s{sup -1} and are therefore likely to power a PWN. This paper summarizes the search for PWNe in the off-pulse windows of 54 LAT-detected pulsars using 16 months of survey observations. Ten sources show significant emission, seven of these likely being of magnetospheric origin. The detection of significant emission in the off-pulse interval offers new constraints on the {gamma}-ray emitting regions in pulsar magnetospheres. The three other sources with significant emission are the Crab Nebula, Vela-X, and a new PWN candidate associated with the LAT pulsar PSR J1023-5746, coincident with the TeV source HESS J1023-575. We further explore the association between the HESS and the Fermi source by modeling its spectral energy distribution. Flux upper limits derived for the 44 remaining sources are used to provide new constraints on famous PWNe that have been detected at keV and/or TeV energies.
- OSTI ID:
- 21567713
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 726, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/726/1/35; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
EIGHT {gamma}-RAY PULSARS DISCOVERED IN BLIND FREQUENCY SEARCHES OF FERMI LAT DATA
Eight γ-Ray Pulsars Discovered In Blind Frequency Searches Of Fermi Lat Data