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Optical Polarization Measurements of Pulsars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Stefan J. Wagner  and
W. Seifert
Stefan J. Wagner
Affiliation:
Landessternwarte Heidelberg, Königstuhl, 69171 Heidelberg, Germany
W. Seifert
Affiliation:
Landessternwarte Heidelberg, Königstuhl, 69171 Heidelberg, Germany

Abstract

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We investigate the polarization characteristics of optical emission from young pulsars. In a first attempt we search for polarization in images without time resolution in order to select suitable candidates for time-resolved studies. Polarization information constrains the nature of the faint optical emission of pulsars and will eventually allow to derive the topology of the field in those areas were optical radiation is emitted. We determine the polarization of the time-integrated optical emission of the SMC pulsar B0540-69 and the Vela pulsar B0833-45. We identify a new candidate optical counterpart for the young pulsar B1509-58 and find that the old candidate is unpolarized. The polarization of these three sources is rather high in view of the assumption that averaging over a putative swing of the polarization angle through 180 degrees will lead to depolarisation in the pulse-averaged signal.

We also detect high degrees of polarization in the synchrotron nebula surrounding the LMC pulsar B0540-69, indicating even further similarity to the Crab.

Type
Part 4. Optical Observations
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 177: Pulsar Astronomy - 2000 and Beyond , 2000 , pp. 315 - 318
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2000

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