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Observations of three young γ-ray pulsars with the gran telescopio canarias

Mignani, R. P.
; 
Rea, N.
; 
Testa, V.
; 
Marelli, M.
; 
De Luca, A.
; 
Pierbattista, M.
; 
Shearer, A.
; 
Torres, D. F.
; 
De Oña Wilhelmi, E.
Repository DOI
Publication Date
2016-07-07
Keywords
stars: neutron, large-area telescope, large-magellanic-cloud, wind nebula, optical observations, radio-quiet, supernova remnant, psr j2021+3651, cta 1, discovery, emission
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Article
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Citation
Mignani, R. P. Rea, N.; Testa, V.; Marelli, M.; De Luca, A.; Pierbattista, M.; Shearer, A.; Torres, D. F.; De Oña Wilhelmi, E. (2016). Observations of three young γ-ray pulsars with the gran telescopio canarias. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 461 (4), 4317-4328
Abstract
We report the analysis of the first deep optical observations of three isolated gamma-ray pulsars detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope: the radio-loud PSR J0248+6021 and PSR J0631+1036, and the radio-quiet PSR J0633+0632. The latter has also been detected in the X-rays. The pulsars are very similar in their spin-down age (tau similar to 40-60 kyr), spin-down energy (E similar to 10(35) erg s(-1)), and dipolar surface magnetic field (B similar to 3-5 x 10(12) G). These pulsars are promising targets for multiwavelength observations, since they have been already detected in gamma-rays and in radio or X-rays. None of them has been detected yet in the optical band. We observed the three pulsar fields in 2014 with the Spanish 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). We could not find any candidate optical counterpart to the three pulsars close to their most recent radio or Chandra positions down to 3 sigma limits of g' similar to 27.3, g' similar to 27, g' similar to 27.3 for PSR J0248+6021, J0631+1036, and J0633+0632, respectively. From the inferred optical upper limits and estimated distance and interstellar extinction, we derived limits on the pulsar optical luminosity. We also searched for the X-ray counterpart to PSR J0248+6021 with Chandra but we did not detect the pulsar down to a 3s flux limit of 5 x 10(-14) erg cm(-2) s(-1) (0.3-10 keV). For all these pulsars, we compared the optical flux upper limits with the extrapolations in the optical domain of the gamma-ray spectra and compared their multiwavelength properties with those of other gamma-ray pulsars of comparable age.
Funder
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Publisher DOI
10.1093/mnras/stw1629
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland
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Externally hosted open access publications with University of Galway authors (2)