Searching for the optical counterparts of two young γ-ray pulsars
Mignani, R. P. Testa, V. Marelli, M. De Luca, A. Pierbattista, M. Razzano, M. Salvetti, D. Belfiore, A. Shearer, A. Moran, P.
Mignani, R. P.
Testa, V.
Marelli, M.
De Luca, A.
Pierbattista, M.
Razzano, M.
Salvetti, D.
Belfiore, A.
Shearer, A.
Moran, P.
Publication Date
2016-09-05
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Article
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Mignani, R. P. Testa, V.; Marelli, M.; De Luca, A.; Pierbattista, M.; Razzano, M.; Salvetti, D.; Belfiore, A.; Shearer, A.; Moran, P. (2016). Searching for the optical counterparts of two young γ-ray pulsars. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 463 (3), 2932-2938
Abstract
We report on the first deep optical observations of two gamma-ray pulsars, both among the very first discovered by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The two pulsars are the radio-loud PSR J1907+0602 in the TeV pulsar wind nebula (PWN) MGRO J1908+06 and the radio-quiet PSR J1809-2332 in the 'Taz' radio/X-ray PWN. These pulsars are relatively young and energetic and have been both detected in the X-rays by XMM-Newton, which makes them viable targets for optical observations. We observed the pulsar fields in the B and V bands with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in 2015 June/July to search for their optical counterparts. Neither of the two pulsars has been detected down to 3 sigma limiting magnitudes of m(v) similar to 26.9 and similar to 27.6 for PSR J1907+0602 and PSR J1809-2332, respectively. We discuss these results in the framework of the multiwavelength emission properties of pulsars.
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Oxford University Press (OUP)
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland