The Polarized Cosmic Hand: IXPE Observations of PSR B1509-58/MSH 15-52

TL;DR

This paper presents IXPE X-ray polarization observations of the pulsar wind nebula MSH15-52 and PSR B1509-58, revealing complex magnetic field structures and high polarization regions, advancing understanding of pulsar and nebula magnetic geometries.

Contribution

First detailed IXPE polarization study of MSH15-52 and PSR B1509-58, mapping magnetic fields and constraining pulsar geometry with polarization data.

Findings

High polarization (>70%) in nebula arcs and jet end regions.

Complex magnetic field structure indicated by varying polarization degrees.

Polarization data constrains pulsar geometry models.

Abstract

We describe IXPE polarization observations of the Pulsar Wind Nebula (PWN) MSH15-52, the `Cosmic Hand'. We find X-ray polarization across the PWN, with B field vectors generally aligned with filamentary X-ray structures. High significance polarization is seen in arcs surrounding the pulsar and toward the end of the `jet', with polarization degree PD>70%, thus approaching the maximum allowed synchrotron value. In contrast, the base of the jet has lower polarization, indicating a complex magnetic field at significant angle to the jet axis. We also detect significant polarization from PSR B1509-58 itself. Although only the central pulse-phase bin of the pulse has high individual significance, flanking bins provide lower significance detections and, in conjunction with the X-ray image and radio polarization, can be used to constrain rotating vector model solutions for the pulsar geometry.