Pulsar Wind Nebulae and Cosmic Rays: A Bedtime Story

TL;DR

This paper reviews how pulsar wind nebulae may contribute to cosmic rays, especially leptons, discussing observational evidence, challenges in interpretation, and future prospects with gamma-ray data from VERITAS.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive observational perspective on the role of pulsar wind nebulae in cosmic ray production and discusses future technological and analytical advancements.

Findings

Pulsar wind nebulae are linked to cosmic ray production, especially leptons.

Gamma-ray observations from VERITAS offer recent insights.

Interpreting gamma-ray emission from SNRs is complex due to nebulae contributions.

Abstract

The role pulsar wind nebulae play in producing our locally observed cosmic ray spectrum remains murky, yet intriguing. Pulsar wind nebulae are born and evolve in conjunction with SNRs, which are favored sites of Galactic cosmic ray acceleration. As a result they frequently complicate interpretation of the gamma-ray emission seen from SNRs. However, pulsar wind nebulae may also contribute directly to the local cosmic ray spectrum, particularly the leptonic component. This paper reviews the current thinking on pulsar wind nebulae and their connection to cosmic ray production from an observational perspective. It also considers how both future technologies and new ways of analyzing existing data can help us to better address the relevant theoretical questions. A number of key points will be illustrated with recent results from the VHE (E > 100 GeV) gamma-ray observatory VERITAS.