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Title: 3D dynamics and morphology of bow-shock pulsar wind nebulae

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz213· OSTI ID:1612509
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]
  1. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States); Space Research Inst. of the Russian Academy of Science (IKI), Moscow (Russia); RIKEN, Saitama (Japan)
  2. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
  3. Rikkyo Univ., Tokyo (Japan)

Bow-shock pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) show a variety of morphological shapes. We attribute this diversity to the geometrical factors: relative orientations of the pulsar rotation axis, proper velocity, and the line of sight (magnetic inclination angle may also have certain influence on the morphology). We identify three basic types of bow-shock nebulae: (i) a rifle bullet (pulsar spin axis and proper velocity are aligned), (ii) a ‘Frisbee’ (pulsar spin axis and proper velocity are orthogonal with the spin axis lying in the plane of the sky), and (iii) a ‘Cart wheel’ (such as frisbee but the spin axis is perpendicular to the plane of the sky). Using results of the 3D magnetohydrodynamics simulations, as well as analytical calculations, we reproduce the key morphological features of the bow-shock PWNe, as well as variations seen across different systems. Magnetic stresses within the shocked pulsar wind affect the overall structure strongly, producing ‘whiskers’, ‘tails’, ‘filled-in’, and ‘mushroom’ shapes, as well as non-symmetric morphologies. On the other hand, the interstellar medium inhomogeneities and the anisotropy of the energy flux in the pulsar wind have only a mild impact of the PWN morphology. In a few cases, when we clearly identify specific morphological structures, our results do not favour alignment of the pulsar spin axis and proper velocity. Here, our calculations of the underlying emission processes explain the low-synchrotron X-ray efficiency (in terms of the spin-down luminosity) and imply an energetically subdominant contribution of the inverse Compton process.

Research Organization:
Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0016369; AST-1306672; 80NSSC17K0757; JSPS KAKENHI; JP18H03722; JP24105007; JP16H02170
OSTI ID:
1612509
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 484, Issue 4; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 27 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (13)

The Tail of PSR J0002+6216 and the Supernova Remnant CTB 1 journal May 2019
Modelling the interaction between relativistic and non-relativistic winds in binary pulsar systems: strong magnetization of the pulsar wind journal October 2019
On the origin of jet-like features in bow shock pulsar wind nebulae journal October 2019
Discovery of a pulsar-powered bow shock nebula in the Small Magellanic Cloud supernova remnant DEM S5 journal April 2019
Kinetic ‘jets’ from fast-moving pulsars journal February 2019
Did GW170817 Harbor a Pulsar? journal September 2019
Full-3D relativistic MHD simulations of bow shock pulsar wind nebulae: emission and polarization journal July 2019
On the nature of radio filaments near the Galactic Centre journal August 2019
GeV–TeV Cosmic-Ray Leptons in the Solar System from the Bow Shock Wind Nebula of the Nearest Millisecond Pulsar J0437–4715 journal April 2019
Detection of ultra-high-energy gamma rays from the Crab Nebula: physical implications journal December 2019
Discovery of a Pulsar-powered Bow Shock Nebula in the Small Magellanic Cloud Supernova Remnant DEMS5 text January 2019
Did GW170817 harbor a pulsar? text January 2019
Modelling the interaction between relativistic and non-relativistic winds in binary pulsar systems: strong magnetization of the pulsar wind text January 2019

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