Chinese astronomers find radio pulsar in a supernova remnant

Utilizing the 5-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), astronomers from the Nanjing College in China and elsewhere, have detected a radio pulsar in a supernova remnant generally known as CTB 87. The discovering is reported in a paper revealed February 1 on the arXiv pre-print server.

Pulsars are extremely magnetized, rotating neutron stars emitting a beam of electromagnetic radiation. They’re normally detected within the type of quick bursts of radio emission; nevertheless, a few of them are additionally noticed through optical, X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes.

CTB 87 is a plerionic supernova remnant (SNR) with an X-ray luminosity practically 100-times weaker than the Crab Nebula within the 0.15−3 keV band. It hosts a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) with trailing morphology in X-rays. Nonetheless, though PWNe are nebulae powered by the wind of a pulsar, no such object on this SNR has been discovered to this point.

Not too long ago, a staff of astronomers led by Nanjing College’s Qian-Cheng Liu investigated a point-like X-ray supply in CTB 87, designated CXOU J201609.2+371110. They report that utilizing FAST radio pulses have been found from this supply.

“We report on our discovery of the radio pulsar, PSR J2016+3711, in supernova remnant CTB 87, with a ∼ 10.8???? significance of pulses, which confirms the compact nature of the X-ray level supply in CTB 87,” the researchers wrote.

In response to the paper, PSR J2016+3711, situated at a distance of about 43,400 light years, has a spin interval of fifty.8 milliseconds and a dispersion measure of roughly 428 computer/cm³. The pulsar’s spin down luminosity was measured to be 22 undecillion erg/s, whereas its attribute age is estimated to be 11,100 years. PSR J2016+3711 due to this fact is the primary pulsar in SNR detected with FAST.

The power of the equatorial floor dipole magnetic area of PSR J2016+3711 was discovered to be at a degree of 1.9 TG. The research additionally discovered that the radio pulse profile of this pulsar is slender, with out broad wings, which means that the radio beam beginning close to the magnetic polar cap is intrinsically slender, or the road of sight sweeps simply throughout a small phase of a broad beam.

On condition that many pulsars additionally emit gamma-rays, Liu’s staff has additionally analyzed the info from NASA’s Fermi spacecraft to seek for the doable gamma-ray pulsation from PSR J2016+3711. Nonetheless, they discovered no gamma-ray pulsation from this supply. The researchers added that extra observations are wanted so as to definitively exclude PSR J2016+3711 as a gamma-ray emitter.

“Extra follow-up radio observations spanning over years can be useful to acquire a extra correct timing answer, which may then be used to fold the gamma-ray information and seek for the pulsation,” the authors of the research concluded.

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