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M. S. Strickman (NRL), A. K. Harding (NASA/GSFC)
We report on our analysis of a 300 ks observation of the Vela pulsar with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer Proportional Counter Array (RXTE/PCA). The pulsed emission in the 2-30 keV band, which we had previously detected during a 93 ks observation, is confirmed with much improved statistics. There is now clear evidence that the pulsed emission in the RXTE/PCA band is a blend of two components with distinct pulse phase and spectral behavior. The spectrum of the harder component connects smoothly with the hard X-ray/Gamma-ray spectra measured by the instruments on CGRO. The corresponding peaks in the light curve are in phase coincidence with those of the high-energy light curve. The spectrum of the softer component is consistent with an extrapolation of the pulsed optical flux. The soft component of the two-component RXTE “second peak” is in phase coincidence with the second optical peak. In addition, we see a soft-spectrum peak in the 2-8 keV RXTE pulse profile at the radio peak phase. We will compare our results with recent X-ray data from Chandra.