Spatially resolved XMM-Newton analysis and a model of the nonthermal emission of MSH 15–52

¹ Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Erwin-Rommel-Straße 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany e-mail: fabian.schoeck@physik.uni-erlangen.de
² Unit for Space Physics, North-West University, Potchefstroom, 2520, South Africa

Received: 28 January 2010
Accepted: 24 March 2010

Abstract

We present an X-ray analysis and a model of the nonthermal emission of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) MSH 15–52. We analyzed XMM-Newton data to obtain the spatially resolved spectral parameters around the pulsar PSR B1509–58. A steepening of the fitted power-law spectra and decrease in the surface brightness is observed with increasing distance from the pulsar. In the second part of this paper, we introduce a model for the nonthermal emission, based on assuming the ideal magnetohydrodynamic limit. This model is used to constrain the parameters of the termination shock and the bulk velocity of the leptons in the PWN. Our model is able to reproduce the spatial variation of the X-ray spectra. The parameter ranges that we found agree well with the parameter estimates found by other authors with different approaches. In the last part of this paper, we calculate the inverse Compton emission from our model and compare it to the emission detected with the HESS telescope system. Our model is able to reproduce the flux level observed with HESS, but not the spectral shape of the observed TeV γ-ray emission.