科研之友
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摘要
We report on a deep optical imaging observation using the Subaru Telescope for a very soft X-ray source, RX J1836.2+5925, which has been suspected to be an isolated neutron star associated with the brightest as-yet unidentified EGRET source outside the Galactic plane, 3EG J1835+5918. An extended source having a complex, bipolar shape is found at B similar to 26, which might be an extended pulsar nebular whose flux is about 5-6 orders of magnitude lower than gamma-ray flux, although finding a galaxy of this magnitude by chance in the error circle is of order unity. We have found two even fainter, possible point sources at B similar to 28, although their detections are not firm because of a low signal-to-noise ratio. If the extended object of B similar to 26 is a galaxy and not related to 3EG J1835+5918, a lower limit on the X-ray/optical flux ratio can be set as f(X)/f(B) greater than or similar to 2700, giving further strong support for the neutron-star identification of 3EG J1835+5918. Interestingly, if either of the two sources at B similar to 28 is the real counterpart of RX J1836.2+5925 and thermal emission from the surface of an isolated neutron star, the temperature and distance to the source become similar to 4 x 10(5) K and similar to 300pc, respectively, showing a striking similarity of its spectral energy distribution to the proto-type radio-quiet gamma-ray pulsar Geminga. No detection of nonthermal hard X-ray emission is consistent with the ASCA upper limit, if the nonthermal flux of 3EG JI835+5918/RX JI836.2+5925 is at a similar level to that of Geminga.
- 出版日期2002
- 单位中国科学院国家天文台
