Spherically symmetric relativistic MHD simulations of pulsar wind nebulae in supernova remnants

¹ Dip. di Astronomia e Scienza dello Spazio, Università di Firenze, Largo E.Fermi 2, 50125 Firenze, Italy
² Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
³ INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy

Corresponding author: N. Bucciantini, niccolo@arcetri.astro.it

Received: 24 February 2003
Accepted: 20 March 2003

Abstract

Pulsars, formed during supernova explosions, are known to be sources of relativistic magnetized winds whose interaction with the expanding supernova remnants (SNRs) gives rise to a pulsar wind nebula (PWN). We present spherically symmetric relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) simulations of the interaction of a pulsar wind with the surrounding SNR, both in particle and magnetically dominated regimes. As shown by previous simulations, the evolution can be divided into three phases: free expansion, a transient phase characterized by the compression and reverberation of the reverse shock, and a final Sedov expansion. The evolution of the contact discontinuity between the PWN and the SNR (and consequently of the SNR itself) is almost independent of the magnetization of the nebula as long as the total (magnetic plus particle) energy is the same. However, a different behaviour of the PWN internal structure is observable during the compression-reverberation phase, depending on the degree of magnetization. The simulations were performed using the third order conservative scheme by Del Zanna et al. (2003).