Vela pulsar wind nebula x-rays are polarized to near the synchrotron limit
Creators: name: Xie, Fei
name: Di Marco, Alessandro
name: La Monaca, Fabio
name: Liu, Kuan
name: Muleri, Fabio
name: Bucciantini, Niccolò
name: Romani, Roger W.
name: Costa, Enrico
name: Rankin, John
name: Soffitta, Paolo
name: Bachetti, Matteo
name: Di Lalla, Niccolò
name: Fabiani, Sergio
name: Ferrazzoli, Riccardo
name: Gunji, Shuichi
name: Latronico, Luca
name: Negro, Michela
name: Omodei, Nicola
name: Pilia, Maura
name: Trois, Alessio
name: Watanabe, Eri
name: Agudo, Iván
name: Antonelli, Lucio A.
name: Baldini, Luca
name: Baumgartner, Wayne H.
name: Bellazzini, Ronaldo
name: Bianchi, Stefano
name: Bongiorno, Stephen D.
name: Bonino, Raffaella
name: Brez, Alessandro
name: Capitanio, Fiamma
name: Castellano, Simone
name: Cavazzuti, Elisabetta
name: Ciprini, Stefano
name: De Rosa, Alessandra
name: Del Monte, Ettore
name: Di Gesu, Laura
name: Donnarumma, Immacolata
name: Doroshenko, Victor
name: Dovčiak, Michal
name: Ehlert, Steven R.
name: Enoto, Teruaki
name: Evangelista, Yuri
name: Garcia, Javier A.
name: Hayashida, Kiyoshi
name: Heyl, Jeremy
name: Iwakiri, Wataru
name: Jorstad, Svetlana G.
name: Karas, Vladimir
name: Kitaguchi, Takao
name: Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J.
name: Krawczynski, Henric
name: Liodakis, Ioannis
name: Maldera, Simone
name: Manfreda, Alberto
name: Marin, Frédéric
name: Marinucci, Andrea
name: Marscher, Alan P.
name: Marshall, Herman L.
name: Massaro, Francesco
name: Matt, Giorgio
name: Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki
name: Mizuno, Tsunefumi
name: Ng, C. -Y.
name: O'Dell, Stephen L.
name: Oppedisano, Chiara
name: Papitto, Alessandro
name: Pavlov, George G.
name: Peirson, Abel L.
name: Perri, Matteo
name: Pesce-Rollins, Melissa
name: Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier
name: Possenti, Andrea
name: Poutanen, Juri
name: Puccetti, Simonetta
name: Ramsey, Brian D.
name: Ratheesh, Ajay
name: Sgró, Carmelo
name: Slane, Patrick
name: Spandre, Gloria
name: Tamagawa, Toru
name: Tavecchio, Fabrizio
name: Taverna, Roberto
name: Tawara, Yuzuru
name: Tennant, Allyn F.
name: Thomas, Nicolas E.
name: Tombesi, Francesco
name: Tsygankov, Sergey S.
name: Turolla, Roberto
name: Vink, Jacco
name: Weisskopf, Martin C.
name: Wu, Kinwah
name: Zane, Silvia
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Pulsar wind nebulae are formed when outflows of relativistic electrons and positrons hit the surrounding supernova remnant or interstellar medium at a shock front. The Vela pulsar wind nebula is powered by a young pulsar (B0833-45, age 11 kyr) and located inside an extended structure called Vela X, itself inside the supernova remnant. Previous X-ray observations revealed two prominent arcs, bisected by a jet and counter jet. Radio maps have shown high linear polarization of 60 per cent in the outer regions of the nebula. Here we report X-ray observation of the inner part of the nebula, where polarization can exceed 60 per cent at the leading edge, which approaches the theoretical limit of what can be produced by synchrotron emission. We infer that, in contrast with the case of the supernova remnant, the electrons in the pulsar wind nebula are accelerated with little or no turbulence in a highly uniform magnetic field.
description: 27 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables, author's version of the paper accepted for publication in Nature