Back to Search
Start Over
Fast-moving pulsars as probes of interstellar medium.
- Source :
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . Sep2020, Vol. 497 Issue 3, p2605-2615. 11p. - Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Pulsars moving through interstellar medium (ISM) produce bow shocks detected in hydrogen H α line emission. The morphology of the bow shock nebulae allows one to probe the properties of ISM on scales ∼0.01 pc and smaller. We performed 2D relativistic magnetohydrodynamic modelling of the pulsar bow shock and simulated the corresponding H α emission morphology. We find that even a mild spatial inhomogeneity of ISM density, δρ/ρ ∼ 1, leads to significant variations of the shape of the shock seen in H α line emission. We successfully reproduce the morphology of the Guitar Nebula. We infer quasi-periodic density variations in the warm component of ISM with characteristic length of ∼0.1 pc. Structures of this scale might be also responsible for the formation of the fine features seen at the forward shock of Tycho supernova remnant (SNR) in X-rays. Formation of such short periodic density structures in the warm component of ISM is puzzling, and bow-shock nebulae provide unique probes to study this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *INTERSTELLAR medium
*SUPERNOVA remnants
*NEBULAE
*NEUTRON stars
*PULSARS
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00358711
- Volume :
- 497
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 145383424
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa1601