Patrick O. Slane

X‐Ray Timing of the Young Pulsar in 3C 58

PSR J0205+6449 is a young pulsar in the Crab‐like pulsar wind nebula 3C 58 which is thought to be a result of the historical supernova SN1181 CE. The 65.7‐ms pulsar is the second most energetic of the known Galactic pulsars and has been shown to be remarkably cool for its age, implying non‐standard cooling processes in the neutron star core. We report on RXTE timing observations taken during AO7 and supplemented by monthly radio observations of the pulsar made with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). The total duration covered with the timing solutions is 450 days. We measure very high levels of timing noise from the source and find evidence for a “giant” glitch of magnitude Δv/v ∼ 1 × 10−6 that occurred in 2002 October. We have also measured the phase‐resolved spectra of the pulsations and find them to be surprisingly hard, with photon indices Γu2009=u20090.84−0.15+0.06 for the main pulse and Γu2009=u20091.0−0.3+0.4 for the interpulse assuming an absorbed power‐law model.

Supernova Remnants in High Definition

Supernova remnants (SNRs) offer the means to study SN explosions, dynamics, and shocks at sub-parsec scales. X-ray observations probe the hot metals synthesized in the explosion and the TeV electrons accelerated by the shocks, and thus they are key to test recent, high-fidelity three-dimensional SN simulations. In this white paper, we discuss the major advances possible with X-ray spectro-imaging at arcsecond scales, with a few eV spectral resolution and a large effective area. These capabilities would revolutionize SN science, offering a three-dimensional view of metals synthesized in explosions and enabling population studies of SNRs in Local Group galaxies. Moreover, this future X-ray mission could detect faint, narrow synchrotron filaments and shock precursors that will constrain the diffusive shock acceleration process.

Searching for Compact Objects in Supernova Remnants: Initial Results

Most astronomers now accept that stars more massive than about 9 M0 explode as supernovae and leave stellar remnants, either neutron stars or black holes. However, less than half of the SNRs within 5 kpc have identified central sources. Here, we discuss a systematic effort to search for compact central sources in the remaining 23 SNRs of this distance-limited sample. As the first part of this survey, we are able to state with some confidence that there are no associated central sources down to a level of one tenth of that of the Cas A central source, l-x ~ 1031 ergs S-l, in four SNRs (G093.3+6.9, G315.4-2.3, G084.2+0.8, and G127.1+0.5). We compare our limits with cooling curves for neutron stars and find that any putative neutron stars in these SNRs must be cooling faster than expected for traditional 1.35 MG) neutron stars.