The discovery of a pulsar wind nebula around the magnetar candidate AXP 1E1547.0-5408

Abstract

We report the detection of extended emission around the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E1547.0-5408 using archival data of the Chandra X-ray satellite. The extended emission consists of an inner part, with an extent of 45″, and an outer part with an outer radius of 2.′9, which coincides with a supernova remnant shell previously detected in the radio. We argue that the extended emission in the inner part is the result of a pulsar wind nebula (PWN), which would be the first detected PWN around a magnetar candidate. Its ratio of X-ray luminosity versus pulsar spin-down power is comparable to that of other young PWNe, but its X-ray spectrum is steeper than most PWNe. We discuss the importance of this source in the context of magnetar evolution. © 2009. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.