Issue |
A&A
Volume 406, Number 2, August I 2003
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 645 - 655 | |
Section | Stellar structure and evolution | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20030652 | |
Published online | 17 November 2003 |
The Vela pulsar in the near-infrared*
1
Ioffe Physical Technical Institute, Politekhnicheskaya 26, St. Petersburg, 194021, Russia
2
Stockholm Observatory, AlbaNova, Department of Astronomy, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Corresponding author: Y. A. Shibanov, shib@astro.ioffe.rssi.ru
Received:
30
January
2003
Accepted:
25
April
2003
We report on the first detection of
the Vela pulsar in the near-infrared
with the VLT/ISAAC in the Js and H bands. The pulsar magnitudes are
and
.
We compare our results with the available
multiwavelength data and show that the dereddened
phase-averaged optical spectrum of the pulsar can be fitted with a power law
with
,
assuming the color excess
based on recent spectral
fits of the emission of the Vela pulsar and its supernova remnant in X-rays.
The negative slope of the pulsar spectrum is
different from the positive slope observed
over a wide optical range in the young Crab pulsar spectrum.
The near-infrared part of the Vela spectrum appears to have
the same slope as the phase-averaged spectrum in the high energy
X-ray tail, obtained in the
keV range with the RXTE .
Both of these spectra
can be fitted with a single power law suggesting their common origin.
Because the phase-averaged RXTE spectrum
in this range is dominated by the second X-ray peak
of the pulsar light curve,
coinciding with the second main peak of its optical pulse
profile, we suggest that this optical peak can be redder than the first one.
We also detect two faint extended structures
in the 1
1 vicinity of the pulsar, projected on and
aligned with the south-east jet and the inner arc of the pulsar
wind nebula, detected in X-rays with Chandra .
We discuss their possible association with the nebula.
Key words: infrared: general / pulsars: individual: Vela pulsar / stars: neutron
© ESO, 2003
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