Hubble Space Telescope observations of the old pulsar PSR J0108-1431
Vadim Abramkin, Yuriy Shibanov, Roberto P. Mignani, George G. Pavlov

TL;DR
This study reports potential FUV detection of the 200 Myr old pulsar PSR J0108-1431 using Hubble, revealing insights into its optical-UV spectrum, luminosity, and surface temperature, and suggesting ongoing surface heating mechanisms.
Contribution
First optical-UV detection of an old pulsar with Hubble, providing new data on its spectrum, luminosity, and thermal properties, and indicating efficient energy conversion and surface heating.
Findings
Possible FUV counterpart detected at 1528 Å with flux 9.0±3.2 nJy.
Optical-UV spectrum fits a flat power-law, steepening in X-rays.
Surface temperature constrained to below 59,000 K, suggesting internal heating.
Abstract
We present results of optical-UV observations of the 200 Myr old rotation-powered radio pulsar J01081431 with the Hubble Space Telescope. We found a putative candidate for the far-UV (FUV) pulsar counterpart, with the flux density nJy at \AA. The pulsar was not detected, however, at longer wavelengths, with upper limits of 52, 37, and 87 nJy at 4326, 3355, and 2366 \AA, respectively. Assuming that the pulsar counterpart was indeed detected in FUV, and the previously reported marginal and detections with the Very Large Telescope were real, the optical-UV spectrum of the pulsar can be described by a power-law model with a nearly flat spectrum. Similar to younger pulsars detected in the optical, the slope of the nonthermal spectrum steepens in the X-ray range. The pulsar's luminosity in the 1500--6000 \AA…
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