A Search for a Pulsar in the Remnant of SN1987A with the High Speed Photometer

Session 62 -- Supernova Remnants and Pulsars
Oral presentation, Tuesday, 10, 1995, 10:00am - 11:30am

[62.04] A Search for a Pulsar in the Remnant of SN1987A with the High Speed Photometer

J. F. Dolan (NASA GSFC), J. W. Percival (U. Wisc.), P. T. Boyd (USRA GSFC), J. D. Biggs (Perth Obs.), R. C. Bless (U. Wisc), J. L. Elliot (M.I.T.), M. J. Nelson (U. Wisc.), E. L. Robinson (U. Texas), M. J. Taylor (Loras Coll.), G. W. van Citters (NSF), K. G. Wolinski (STScI)

The High Speed Photometer on the Hubble Space Telescope observed the remnant of SN1987A on four different epochs between 1992 June 2 and 1993 November 4 in a 1600 - 7000 A bandpass. Each observation was approximately 40 minutes in duration and used a 100 microsecond sampling time. After correcting to the barycenter of the solar system, no periodic signal was found in any data set using autocorrelation function (ACF) analyses with lags from 200 microseconds to 10 s, power spectral function (PSF) analyses with a Nyquist frequency corresponding to a period of 200 microseconds, or in trial pulse profiles obtained by binning the data modulo the frequencies of highest significance in the ACF and PSF analyses. Searches for signals with large values of dp/dt also proved negative. We estimate an upper limit of V fainter than 27 for pulsed radiation from any stellar remnant of SN1987A.

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