The helical jet of the Vela Pulsar
Martin Durant, Oleg Kargaltsev, George G. Pavlov, Julia Kropotina,, Kseniya Levenfish
TL;DR
This study uses deep Chandra X-ray observations to analyze the Vela pulsar's nebula, revealing a stable helical jet structure and discussing potential physical mechanisms behind its dynamics.
Contribution
First detailed imaging of the Vela pulsar's jet showing a steady helical shape, with implications for neutron star precession and MHD instabilities.
Findings
Jet exhibits a steady helical shape and motion.
Jet dynamics consistent with a steadily turning helix.
Results suggest possible neutron star precession or MHD instabilities.
Abstract
We have studied the fascinating dynamics of the nearby Vela pulsar's nebula in a campaign comprising eleven 40ks observations with Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO). The deepest yet images revealed the shape, structure, and motion of the 2-arcminute-long pulsar jet. We find that the jet's shape and dynamics are remarkably consistent with that of a steadily turning helix projected on the sky. We discuss possible implications of our results, including free precession of the neutron star and MHD instability scenarios.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.