The first maps of the magnetic field in the nebula surrounding the Crab pulsar have been drawn using X-ray polarimetry. They provide insight into the flow of relativistic particles through the nebula and the generation of turbulence.
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References
Gaensler, B. M. & Slane, P. O. The evolution and structure of pulsar wind nebulae. Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 44, 17–47 (2006). A review article on pulsar wind nebulae.
Bucciantini, N. Pulsar wind nebulae modeling. Int. J. Mod. Phys. Conf. Ser. 28, 1460162 (2014). A review article on magnetohydrodynamic modelling of pulsar wind nebulae.
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Bucciantini, N. in High-Energy Emission from Pulsars and their Systems: Proceedings of the First Session of the Sant Cugat Forum on Astrophysics (eds Torres, D. F. & Rea, N.) 473–490 (Springer, 2011). A review article that presents modelling based on high-resolution X-ray imaging of pulsar wind nebulae.
Xie, F. et al. Vela pulsar wind nebula X-rays are polarized to near the synchrotron limit. Nature 612, 658–660 (2022). This paper reports IXPE observations of the Vela pulsar wind nebula.
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This is a summary of: Bucciantini, N. et al. Simultaneous space and phase resolved X-ray polarimetry of the Crab pulsar and nebula. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01936-8 (2023).
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Revealing the magnetic field geometry in the Milky Way’s most efficient particle accelerator. Nat Astron 7, 522–523 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01952-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01952-8