AAS 207th Meeting, 8-12 January 2006
Session 183 Radio and X-Ray Pulsars
Poster, Thursday, 9:20am-4:00pm, January 12, 2006, Exhibit Hall

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[183.14] A Study of the Effects of Synchrotron Cooling on the Structure and Appearance of Pulsar Wind Nebulae

J. P. Bernstein, P. A. Hughes (U. Michigan)

We have undertaken the simulation of the interaction of a light, relativistic pulsar wind with a dense, ambient medium. Such a scenario has been suggested as the origin of asymmetric pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). We discuss the application of an existing adaptive-mesh, axisymmetric, relativistic hydrodynamic code to the simulation of such a flow, and in particular, the development of a cooling module. We define a species of tracer particles that are distinct from, but tied to, the hydrodynamic flow. We evolve their mass and energy density via the Euler equations using the velocity of the flow and physical source terms representing synchrotron cooling and shock heating. We initially expect to harness the tracer particles to compute an X-ray emissivity. Ultimately, we will use their mass and energy density to generate a sink for the energy density of the hydrodynamic flow in order to study the effects of energy loss on PWNe morphology. This work is supported by a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program grant.


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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: jpbernst@umich.edu

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