A Candidate Optical Counterpart to the Middle Aged γ-RAY Pulsar PSRJ1741-2054

Journal
Date Issued
2016
Author(s)
•
•
•
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Salvetti, D.
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Belfiore, A.
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Pierbattista, M.
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Razzano, M.
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Shearer, A.
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Moran, P.
DOI
Abstract
We carried out deep optical observations of the middle aged γ-ray pulsar PSR J1741-2054 with the Very Large Telescope (VLT). We identified two objects, of magnitudes m v = 23.10 ± 0.05 and m v = 25.32 ± 0.08, at positions consistent with the very accurate Chandra coordinates of the pulsar, the faintest of which is more likely to be its counterpart. From the VLT images we also detected the known bow-shock nebula around PSR J1741-2054. The nebula is displaced by ∼0.″9 (at the 3σ confidence level) with respect to its position measured in archival data, showing that the shock propagates in the interstellar medium consistently with the pulsar proper motion. Finally, we could not find evidence of large-scale extended optical emission associated with the pulsar wind nebula detected by Chandra, down to a surface brightness limit of ∼28.1 mag arcsec-2. Future observations are needed to confirm the optical identification of PSR J1741-2054 and characterize the spectrum of its counterpart.

Based on observations collected at the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere under ESO programme 095.D-0328(B).

Volume
825
Issue
2
Start page
151
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
0004-637X
Ads BibCode
2016ApJ...825..151M
Rights
open.access
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