Speaker
Description
Galactic pulsar wind nebulae are suitable targets for studying relativistic plasmas because they radiate in all energy ranges, and a number of PWNe are close enough that their spectra, dynamics and morphology can be resolved in great detail. Pulsar wind nebulae often exhibit a jet-torus morphology in X-rays, unless distorted by very strong external flow. Typically, nebulae form a single torus, but some develop double X-ray tori. Numerical PWNe models struggle to explain this dichotomy, and a suitable MHD model has been recently proposed and tested against observations. The model reproduces virtually all X-ray features in Vela PWN, a prototype double-torus nebula resolved in detail by the Chandra X-ray observatory. The model also indicates some additional X-ray features that should be characteristic of double-torus objects.
We prove the existence of these features in Vela by reprocessing its archival Chandra observations. The model naturally explains the high degree of polarization detected in Vela by the IXPE observatory and the precession of the Vela's double-torus. By direct numerical modeling of high energy particle propagation within the double-torus nebulae we demonstrated that the Vela-like PWNe can accelerate protons and leptons well above hundred TeV.