Chandra Proper Motions and Milliarcsecond Astrometry of Nineteen Pulsars
Abstract
We present X-ray proper motion (PM) measurements of 19 pulsars using new and archival data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, including pulsar wind trails and X-ray filaments. Precise X-ray PMs are often limited by uncertainties in aligning observations to a common reference frame. Our analysis uses unresolved X-ray flux from stars in the Gaia catalog in addition to X-ray bright point sources for alignment, improving uncertainties. We obtain absolute positions referenced to Gaia with typical astrometric precision 10 mas and PM statistical uncertainties down to 1.3 mas yr, the most precise X-ray PM achieved to date. With our improved frame alignment, PM accuracies are now limited by the pulsar flux in most cases. These results reveal a new X-ray filament and illuminate the wind nebula structures and origins of several of these pulsars.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.18436,
title = {Chandra Proper Motions and Milliarcsecond Astrometry of Nineteen Pulsars},
author = {Jack T. Dinsmore and Roger W. Romani},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.18436},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
11 + 3 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ