Previous
abstract 
Next
abstract
Session 68 - Degenerate Stars, Pulsars.
Display session, Thursday, June 11
Atlas Ballroom,
We have conducted a study of two rotation-powered pulsars that emit at both radio and x-ray wavelengths, PSR B0531+21 and PSR B1929+10. Using absolute phase information, we have phase-aligned x-ray and radio profiles from these pulsars. Observations were done using the Green Bank 140ft telescope, and ASCA. The 0531+21 x-ray profile is sharp and lines up well with the radio profile confirming that the x-ray emission from this pulsar is magnetospheric in origin. The 1929+10 profile is approximately sinusoidal (Wang amp; Halpern, ApJ 4 82, L159) with the peak of the emission arriving 67\pm 23 degrees after the maximum in the radio emission. The controversy to which the PSR B1929+10 result adds fuel, is whether this ``inter"-pulsar, is an ``aligned" or ``orthogonal" rotator - describing the alignment of the magnetic axis to the rotation axis. Do the two peaks in the radio profile (the pulse and interpulse) come from a double crossing of a thin hollow cone nearly aligned with rotation axis (as in Lyne amp; Manchester, 1988, MNRAS, 234, 477; Phillips, 1990, ApJL, 361, L57; Blaskiewicz et al, 1991, ApJ 370, 643), or alternatively (as in Rankin and Rathnasree, 1998 preprint) do they come from from opposite poles of an ``orthogonal" rotator where the spin axis is perpendicular to the magnetic axis? The radio to x-ray alignment we find favors the former explanation: if the x-ray hot spot is the result of return currents to the surface from the outward current that generates radio emission, then in the ``double-crossing" model, the hot spot phase is expected to lie between the main pulse and interpulse as observed.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: andrea@astro.berkeley.edu
