2012/06/20 by Satoru Katsuda, Hiroshi Tsunemi, H. Tsunemi +5 · 1 voice
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/2041-8205/754/1/l7
openalex publication_date 2012/07/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report on a discovery of a diffuse nebula containing a point-like source in the southern blowout region of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant, based on Suzaku and XMM-Newton observations. The X-ray spectra from the nebula and the point-like source are well represented by an absorbed power-law model with photon indices of 2.2+/-0.1 and 1.6+/-0.2, respectively. The photon indices as well as the flux ratio of F(sub nebula)/F(sub point-like) approx. 4 lead us to propose that the system is a pulsar wind nebula, although pulsations have not yet been detected. If we attribute its origin to the Cygnus Loop supernova, then the 0.5-8 keV luminosity of the nebula is computed to be 2.1x10(exp 31)(d/540pc)(exp 2)ergss/2, where d is the distance to the Loop. This implies a spin-down loss-energy E approx. 2.6x10(exp 35)(d/540pc)(exp 2)ergs/s. The location of the neutron star candidate, approx.2deg away from the geometric center of the Loop, implies a high transverse velocity of approx.1850(theta/2deg)(d/540pc)(t/10kyr)/k/s assuming the currently accepted age of the Cygnus Loop.