The imprint of pulsar parameters on the morphology of Pulsar Wind Nebulae

Abstract

The morphology of young PulsarWind Nebulae (PWN) is largely determined by the properties of the wind injected by the pulsar. We have used a recent parametrization of the wind obtained from force-free electrodynamics simulations of pulsar magnetospheres to simulate nebulae for different sets of pulsar parameters. We performed axisymmetric relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations to test the morphology dependence of the nebula on the obliquity of the pulsar and on the magnetization of the pulsar wind. We compare these simulations to the morphology of the Vela and Crab PWN. We find that the morphology of Vela can be reproduced qualitatively if the pulsar obliquity angle is α ≈ 45° and the magnetization of the wind is high (σ0 ≈ 3.0). A morphology similar to the one of the Crab nebula is only obtained for low-magnetization simulations with α ≳ 45°. Interestingly, we find that Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities produce small-scale turbulences downstream of the reverse shock of the pulsar wind.