The helical jet of the Vela Pulsar
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
2015-06-12 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
We have studied the fascinating dynamics of the nearby Vela pulsar's nebula in a campaign comprising eleven 40ks observations with Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO). The deepest yet images revealed the shape, structure, and motion of the 2-arcminute-long pulsar jet. We find that the jet's shape and dynamics are remarkably consistent with that of a steadily turning helix projected on the sky. We discuss possible implications of our results, including free precession of the neutron star and MHD instability scenarios.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1211.0347,
title = {The helical jet of the Vela Pulsar},
author = {Martin Durant and Oleg Kargaltsev and George G. Pavlov and Julia Kropotina and Kseniya Levenfish},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1211.0347},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in ApJ