The properties of the putative pulsar associated with IGR J18135-1751/HESS J1813-178

TL;DR

This paper explores the theoretical properties of a potential pulsar linked to a specific nebula, revealing that standard models imply extreme parameters, and suggests alternative scenarios for more typical pulsar characteristics.

Contribution

It demonstrates that standard magnetic dipole radiation models produce extreme pulsar parameters and proposes decoupling pulsar age from system age to obtain more realistic properties.

Findings

Standard models imply an extremely high magnetic field (~10^14 G).

Decoupling pulsar age from system age yields more typical pulsar parameters.

Alternative assumptions can produce plausible pulsar characteristics.

Abstract

Context: We investigate the possible theoretical properties of the putative pulsar associated with the pulsar wind nebula IGR J18135-1751/HESS J1813-178 based upon recent gamma-ray observations and archival multi-wavelength observations. Aims: We show that when using the standard equations for magnetic dipole radiation with recent soft gamma-ray observations leads to deriving an extreme set of parameters (magnetic field, period and spin down rate) for the putative pulsar. Alternative scenarios that generate more typical parameter values are explored. Methods: The properties of the putative pulsar are calculated assuming that the 20-100 keV luminosity corresponds to 1% of Edot, that the source is 4.5 kpc away, and that the pulsar age is 300 yrs. This gives P = 0.55 s, Pdot = 3E-11 s/s, and B = 1.28E14 G. This is a very extreme set compared to the population of known pulsars in PWN systems. Using the equations for magnetic dipole losses makes it possible to adjust the initial assumptions to see what is required for a more reasonable set of pulsar parameters. Results: The current measured properties for IGR J18135-1751/HESS J1813-178 (i.e. luminosity, distance, and age) result in extreme properties of the unseen pulsar within the PWN. The simplest method for achieving more reasonable properties for the pulsar is to decouple the spin-down age of the pulsar from the actual age for the system.