INTEGRAL detection of the pulsar wind nebula in PSR J1846–0258

¹ School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Southampton, Highfield, SO17 1BJ, UK e-mail: vanessa@soton.ac.uk
² INAF/IASF, via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, Roma 00113, Italy
³ INAF/IASF, via P. Gobetti 101, Bologna 40129, Italy

Received: 7 August 2007
Accepted: 26 October 2007

Abstract

Aims.We communicate the detection of soft (20–200 keV) γ-rays from the pulsar and pulsar wind nebula of PSR J1846-0258 and aim to identify the component of the system which is responsible for the γ-ray emission.

Methods.We combine spectral information from the INTEGRAL γ-ray mission with archival data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory to pinpoint the source of soft γ-ray emission.

Results.Our analysis shows that the soft γ-rays detected from PSR J1846-0258 include emission from both the pulsar and the pulsar wind nebula, but the measured spectral shape is dominated by the pulsar wind nebula. We discuss PSR J1846-0258 in the context of rotation-powered pulsars with high magnetic field strengths and review the anomalously high fraction of spin-down luminosity converted into X- and γ-ray emission in light of a possible overestimate of the distance to this pulsar.