Abstract
OSSE observed the 150 ms X-ray pulsar PSR B1509-58 in the supernova remnant MSH 15-52 for 4 weeks in 1992. The pulsed spectrum from 50 keV to 5 MeV is well represented by a single power-law photon spectrum of the form (3.14 ± 0.16) × 10-6 × (E/118.5 keV)-1.68 ± 0.09 photons cm-2 s-1 keV-1. This is significantly harder than the Crab pulsar spectrum in this energy range. The Ginga soft X-ray spectrum (2-60 keV) reported by Kawai et al. is significantly harder than the observed OSSE spectrum and predicts a flux 2 times higher than we observe in the ∼55-170 keV energy band. This requires a break to a steeper spectrum somewhere in the intermediate energy range (∼20-80 keV). The spectrum must soften again at higher energies or the pulsar would have easily been detected by EGRET, COS B, and SAS 2.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 288-291 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
Volume | 434 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 10 1994 |
Keywords
- Gamma rays: observations
- Pulsars: individual (PSR B1509-58)
- X-rays: stars
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science