The Vela-X Pulsar Wind Nebula revisited with 4 years of Fermi-Large Area Telescope observations

TL;DR

This paper presents a detailed morphological and spectral analysis of the Vela-X pulsar wind nebula using four years of Fermi-LAT data, revealing new spatial features and energy-dependent structures.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed morphological analysis of Vela-X at energies as low as 0.3 GeV, uncovering new spatial features and insights into the nebula's structure.

Findings

Lowered the analysis threshold to 0.3 GeV from 0.8 GeV.

Detected new spatial features in the nebula.

Provided insights into the origin of these features.

Abstract

The Vela supernova remnant is the closest supernova remnant to Earth containing an active pulsar, the Vela pulsar (PSR B0833-45). This pulsar is the archetype of the middle-aged pulsar class and powers a bright pulsar wind nebula (PWN), Vela-X, spanning a region of 2{\deg} x 3{\deg} south of the pulsar and observed in the radio, X-ray and very high energy gamma-ray domains. The detection of the Vela-X PWN by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) was reported in the first year of the mission. Subsequently, we have re-investigated this complex region and performed a detailed morphological and spectral analysis of this source using 4 years of Fermi-LAT observations. This study lowers the threshold for morphological analysis of the nebula from 0.8 GeV to 0.3 GeV, allowing inspection of distinct energy bands by the LAT for the first time. We describe the recent results obtained on this PWN and discuss the origin of the newly detected spatial features.