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O. Y. Kargaltsev, G. G. Pavlov (Penn State)
X-ray observations of spin-powered pulsars (PSRs) and pulsar-wind nebulae (PWNe) provide powerful diagnostics of emission mechanisms and acceleration processes operating in pulsar magnetospheres and winds. They help to elucidate the physics of relativistic MHD shocks and the effect of pulsar evolution on the observable parameters. We report the results of an ongoing study of the X-ray properties of pulsars and PWNe observed with Chandra. The sample of these objects has finally become large enough to permit a meaningful statistical analysis of the PSR/PWN population. We find that the PSR and PWN luminosities are much stronger correlated with each other than with the pulsar spin-down power. A correlation between the slopes of the PSR and PWN spectra is confirmed, but the correlation law differs from that previously suggested. On the other hand, the slopes of the PSR/PWN spectra do not correlate significantly with the spin-down power. We also discuss the evolution of PWN sizes and morphologies.
The work was partly supported by NASA grant NAG5-10865.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.