Publication Date:
2015-08-05
Description:
PSR J1357–6429 is a young and energetic radio pulsar detected in X-rays and -rays. It powers a compact pulsar wind nebula with a jet visible in X-rays and a large-scale plerion detected in X-ray and TeV ranges. Previous multiwavelength studies suggested that the pulsar has a significant proper motion of about 180 mas yr –1 , implying an extremely high transverse velocity of about 2000 km s –1 . In order to verify this, we performed radio-interferometric observations of PSR J1357–6429 with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) in the 2.1-GHz band. We detected the pulsar with a mean flux density of 212 ± 5 μJy and obtained the most accurate pulsar position: RA = $13^{\rm h}57^{\rm m}02{^{\rm s}_{.}}525(14)$ , Dec. = –64°29 ' 29 ${^{\prime\prime}_{.}}$ 89(15). Using both new and archival ATCA data, we did not find any proper motion and estimated its 90 per cent upper limit as μ 〈 106 mas yr –1 . The pulsar shows a highly polarized single pulse, as was observed earlier at 1.4 GHz. Spectral analysis revealed a shallow spectral index α = 0.5 ± 0.1. Based on our new radio position of the pulsar, we discount the claim of an optical counterpart candidate reported previously.
Print ISSN:
0035-8711
Electronic ISSN:
1365-2966
Topics:
Physics
