The observed velocity distribution of young pulsars
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 7 December 2017
- journal article
- Published by EDP Sciences in Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Vol. 608, A57
- https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201731518
Abstract
We argue that comparison with observations of theoretical models for the velocity distribution of pulsars must be done directly with the observed quantities, that is parallax and the two components of proper motion. We have developed a formalism to do so, and applied it to pulsars with accurate VLBI measurements. For computational convenience, we model the data with Maxwellians. We find that a distribution with two Maxwellians improves significantly on a single Maxwellian. The “mixed” model takes into account that pulsars move away from their place of birth, a narrow region around the Galactic plane. The best model has 42% of the pulsars in a Maxwellian with average velocity km s-1, and 58% in a Maxwellian with average velocity 540 km s-1. About 5% of the pulsars has a velocity at birth less than 60 km s-1. For the youngest pulsars (τc < 10 Myr), these numbers are 32% with 130 km s-1, 68% with 520 km s-1, and 3%, with appreciable uncertainties. Our analysis shows that the velocity distribution is wider than can be described with a single Maxwellian; it does not prove that two Maxwellians provide a better description than other wide models.Keywords
This publication has 27 references indexed in Scilit:
- Estimating Distances from ParallaxesPublications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2015
- PRECISION ASTROMETRY WITH THE VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY: PARALLAXES AND PROPER MOTIONS FOR 14 PULSARSThe Astrophysical Journal, 2009
- Pulsar Parallaxes at 5 GHz with the Very Long Baseline ArrayThe Astrophysical Journal, 2004
- Proper-Motion Measurements with the VLA. II. Observations of 28 PulsarsThe Astronomical Journal, 2003
- The Distance and Radius of the Neutron Star PSR B0656+14The Astrophysical Journal, 2003
- Very Long Baseline Array Measurement of Nine Pulsar ParallaxesThe Astrophysical Journal, 2002
- The Velocity Distribution of Isolated Radio PulsarsThe Astrophysical Journal, 2002
- Parallax and Kinematics of PSR B0919+06 from VLBA Astrometry and Interstellar ScintillometryThe Astrophysical Journal, 2001
- Measurement of the Parallax of PSR B0950+08 Using the VLBAThe Astrophysical Journal, 2000
- Local stellar kinematics from Hipparcos dataMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1998