The Vela Pulsar's Radio Nebula

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a symmetric, highly polarised radio nebula around the Vela pulsar, revealing a larger extent and detailed structure aligned with the pulsar's spin axis, with multi-frequency analysis.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed imaging of the Vela pulsar's radio nebula, including its symmetric morphology and polarisation properties, improving understanding of pulsar wind nebulae.

Findings

The nebula extends wider than previously known.

The structure is highly polarised with symmetry around the pulsar's spin axis.

Radio and X-ray emissions are spatially distinct within the nebula.

Abstract

We have discovered that the radio nebula surrounding the Vela pulsar covers a much wider extent than previously reported, with two lobes to the North and South of the pulsar. Indications of this object have been reported previously, but its symmetric morphology around the pulsar and other details had not been identified as they were hidden due to poor sensitivity to low spatial frequencies. The structure is highly polarised and the polarisation vectors, once corrected for Faraday rotation, reveal symmetry with respect to the spin axis of the pulsar. The X-ray emission found by Chandra lies at the centre of this structure, in a region which has no detectable excess of radio emission. We estimate total fluxes and regional fluxes from the Northern and Southern lobes, plus the X-ray region at four radio frequencies; 1.4, 2.4, 5 and 8.5 GHz. We present the corresponding images in both the total and polarised intensities, as well as those showing the derotated linear polarisation vectors.