The origin of the Guitar pulsar

TL;DR

This study traces the origin of the Guitar pulsar by analyzing its past trajectory and identifying its probable parent association, Cygnus OB3, using Monte Carlo simulations and galactic potential modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a method combining Euler-Cauchy trajectory calculations with Monte Carlo simulations to identify pulsar origins and constrain their ages.

Findings

Guitar pulsar likely originated from Cygnus OB3

Estimated age of origin is approximately 0.8 million years

Current radial velocity of the pulsar is about -30 km/s

Abstract

Among a sample of 140 OB associations and clusters, we want to identify probable parent associations for the Guitar pulsar (PSR B2224+65) which would then also constrain its age. For this purpose, we are using an Euler-Cauchy technique treating the vertical component of the galactic potential to calculate the trajectories of the pulsar and each association into the past. To include errors we use Monte-Carlo simulations varying the initial parameters within their error intervals. The whole range of possible pulsar radial velocities is taken into account during the simulations. We find that the Guitar pulsar most probably originated from the Cygnus OB3 association ~0.8 Myr ago inferring a current radial velocity of v_r~-30 km/s, consistent with the inclination of its bow shock.