Chandra X-ray Observations of the Pulsar Wind Nebula within CTA 1

TL;DR

This paper presents detailed Chandra X-ray observations of the CTA 1 pulsar wind nebula, revealing its structure, spectral properties, and implications for particle acceleration and magnetic field configuration.

Contribution

It provides the first spatially resolved spectroscopy and modeling of the PWN, constraining its geometry, magnetic field, and particle acceleration to PeV energies.

Findings

Jet and torus structures with hard spectra indicating minimal cooling

Pulsar transverse velocity constrained to less than 200 km/s

Low magnetic field and high electron energy cutoff suggest rapid magnetic field decrease outside the nebula

Abstract

We present deep Chandra observations of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) powered by PSR J0007+7303 in the composite supernova remnant CTA 1. The merged ACIS image shows a $\sim20''$ jet extending south of the pulsar and bending toward the southwest, a faint counter-jet to the north, and a compact torus oriented approximately perpendicular to the jet axis. Using an archival observation from 2003 we perform relative astrometry over a $\sim20$ yr baseline and constrain the pulsar's transverse velocity to $\lesssim 200~\mathrm{km~s^{-1}}$ at the distance of 1.4 kpc at 95% confidence. Spatially resolved spectroscopy shows hard spectra for the jet and torus (photon indicies $\Gamma \approx 1.2-1.4$) and a softer spectrum for the extended nebula ($\Gamma = 1.85 \pm 0.11$), indicating minimal radiative cooling in the compact regions. Modeling of the torus, associated with the termination shock, as an inclined circle yields a viewing angle $\zeta \approx 50^\circ$. The outer gap and two-pole caustic pulsar emission models then imply a moderate magnetic inclination ($\alpha \sim 20^\circ$-$70^\circ$). Broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling from radio to PeV $\gamma$-rays for a one-zone leptonic scenario yields a low magnetic field ($B \approx 1.4$-$3.2~\mu\mathrm{G}$) and a high electron cutoff energy ($E_{\rm cut} \sim 0.2$-$0.3~\mathrm{PeV}$), indicating that the magnetic field decreases rapidly outside of the compact nebula. These results establish CTA 1 as a young, low X-ray efficiency PWN with a hard injection spectrum capable of accelerating particles to PeV energies.