The Apparent Asymmetric Outflows of TeV Particles from Pulsar Winds

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Pu, HongYu, Liu, Siming
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Pu, HongYu
Liu, Siming
author_facet Pu, HongYu
Liu, Siming
contents Observations of X-ray filaments attached to a couple of powerful pulsars suggest escape of TeV electrons and/or positrons (e$^{\pm}$) from pulsar bow shocks into surrounding large scale magnetic fields. These filaments are usually asymmetric with very weak emission from the other side of the main filaments, and no significant spectral variation has been detected across these filaments, implying inefficient energy loss of emitting particles. We develop a Monte Carlo code to simulate particle transport in a large scale magnetic field and apply the model to PSR B2224+4415 (Guitar). It is shown that, with an injection power of a few tens of percent of the pulsar spin down luminosity, TeV e$^{\pm}$ can explain the observed filament properties with a scattering mean free path along the magnetic field comparable to the length of the observed filament. The model predicts a dim diffuse symmetric X-ray background aligned with the filament on a larger scale, whose flux is proportional to the X-ray emitting e$^{\pm}$ energy loss time for a stable e$^{\pm}$ injection power comparable to the luminosity of this diffuse background. Observations with a large field of view and good sensitivity should be able to detect such a component.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_19211
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Apparent Asymmetric Outflows of TeV Particles from Pulsar Winds
Pu, HongYu
Liu, Siming
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Observations of X-ray filaments attached to a couple of powerful pulsars suggest escape of TeV electrons and/or positrons (e$^{\pm}$) from pulsar bow shocks into surrounding large scale magnetic fields. These filaments are usually asymmetric with very weak emission from the other side of the main filaments, and no significant spectral variation has been detected across these filaments, implying inefficient energy loss of emitting particles. We develop a Monte Carlo code to simulate particle transport in a large scale magnetic field and apply the model to PSR B2224+4415 (Guitar). It is shown that, with an injection power of a few tens of percent of the pulsar spin down luminosity, TeV e$^{\pm}$ can explain the observed filament properties with a scattering mean free path along the magnetic field comparable to the length of the observed filament. The model predicts a dim diffuse symmetric X-ray background aligned with the filament on a larger scale, whose flux is proportional to the X-ray emitting e$^{\pm}$ energy loss time for a stable e$^{\pm}$ injection power comparable to the luminosity of this diffuse background. Observations with a large field of view and good sensitivity should be able to detect such a component.
title The Apparent Asymmetric Outflows of TeV Particles from Pulsar Winds
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.19211