Science with the new HST after SM4 Neutron Star Astronomy Roberto Mignani University College London Mullard Space Science Laboratory

The Role of HST in NS Astronomy ID mag DiscoveryIdentification PSR B Steward Cocke et al. (1969)Kitt Pk. Lyndt et al. (1969) PSR B Blanco Lasker (1976) AAT Wallace et al. (1977) PSR B CTIO Middleditch et al. (1984) NTT Caraveo et al. (1992) Geminga 25.5 CFHT Bignami et al. (1987) NTT Bignami et al. (1993) PSR B NTT Caraveo et al. (1994) HST Mignani et al. (2000) PSR B HST Pavlov et al. (1996) Subaru Zharikov et al. (2004) PSR B HST Pavlov et al. (1996) HST Mignani et al. (2001) PSR B HST Mignani et al. (1997) - RX J HST Walter et al. (1997) HST Walter et al. ( 2001) RX J Keck Kulkarni et al. (1998) VLT Motch et al. (2003) PSR B VLT Wagner et al. (2000) Gemini Kaplan et al. (2006) RX J HST Kaplan et al. (2002) - RX J HST Kaplan et al. (2003) Subaru Motch et al. (2004) PSR J HST Kargaltzev et al. (2004) HST Kargaltzev et al. (2004) Pre-HST Post-HST The breakthrough ! PSR = “classical” radio pulsars RX = radio-quiet NSs, thermal X-ray emitters

The Impact of HST on NS Astronomy Higher sensitivity wrt pre 10-m class telescopes Sharper spatial solution UV + IR access Timing Polarimetry (poorly exploited)  All together, capabilities offered only by HST VLT/FORS1HST/STIS B Mignani et al. (2001)

Perspectives after SM-4 By the end of 2008, HST will be the longest-lived astronomical satellite –WFPC2  WFC3 (UV+VIS+IR) –COSTAR  COS (UV) –STIS and ACS to be repaired Spatial resolution: WFC3 (STIS+ACS) UV: WFC3, COS (STIS+ACS) IR: WFC3 WFC3 better in UV & IR wrt ACS & NICMOS WFC3 worse in VIS wrt ACS, better wrt WFPC2 Timing: STIS Polarimetry: ACS

Astrometry HST proper motions (parallaxes) measured so far for 8 (4) neutron stars WFC3 (ACS) can enlarge the sample with a much better accuracy –Confirm NS identifications –Localization of NS birth place –NS velocity  ISM accretion or not. Important for RX neutron stars –Hints on SN dynamics and progenitor core collapse PSR B ±0.4Only optical PM available PSR B ±1.13.4±0.7PM accuracy comparable to VLBI PSR B ±2 Geminga171.0±66±2Only optical PM feasible PSR B ±1.4 RX J ±1.22.8±0.9Only optical PM feasible RX J ±3Only optical PM feasible RX J ±16.2±0.6Only optical PM feasible Crab Vela The Drilling Pulsars Mignani et al.(2000)

Neutron Stars Nebulae WFC3 (ACS) can resolve the structure and variability of the Pulsar Wind Nebulae, as WFPC2 did for the Crab. Only chance for distant PWNe ! WFPC2 also found evidence of optical variability also in the B PWN (De Luca et al. 2007;Mignani et al. 2008a) Genuine variability in the nebula ? Expanding optical jet from the pulsar (v=22000 km/s)? “Crazy Ivan” pattern PULSAR BLOB

The Near-UV FOC&STIS detected UV emission from middle-aged neutron stars (Mignani et al. 1998; Pavlov et al. 1997; Kargaltsev et al. 2007)  RJ tail of the cooling neutron star spectrum. Fitting the thermal spectrum yields: -coupled with the distance, the surface thermal map -coupled with age, the neutron star cooling rate - NS conductivy, core composition, EOS UV COS (STIS,ACS) observations are critical to: - constrain 6 yrs (too cold for X-rays), where different models predict different slopes - investigate NS re-heating (Kargaltsev et al. 2004) Optical (colder&larger) X-rays (hotter&smaller)

The Near-IR NICMOS discovered IR emission from NSs (Koptsevich et al. 2001), the first after the Crab E.g., for B the IR is a hint of a debris disk of ≈ M sun (Perna et al. 2000) Disk not resolved by Spitzer (Mignani et al. 2008b) Detection of debris disks has implications on NS formation and SN models WFC3 can do a better job Spitzer/IRAC Koptsevich et al. (2001) More about it in Andy Shearer’s talk

Timing Multi-λ timing allows to study the light curve λ -dependance Important inputs on emission models from NS magnetosphere STIS observations have detected for the first time UV pulsations from neutron stars (Kargaltsev et al. 2005;, Shibanov et al. 2006; Romani et al. 2005) UV time-resolved spectroscopy allows to weight different emission processes

Polarimetry Optical polarimetry with ACS is a powerful diagnostic to: (i) test neutron star magnetosphere models (ii) constrain magnetic field geometry (iii) constrain the neutron star rotation angle wrt the sky (iv) investigate pulsar/nebula magneto-dynamical interactions Observations of PSR B performed with WFPC2 (Mignani et al. 2008c) P intr = 13% P intr = 75% dipole angle α polarisation angle (wrt NS axis) HST proper motion polarization X-ray axis Mignani et al.(2007)

More Goals … While keeping the course on “classical” PSRs, there are other challenges to face Many more classes of radio-quiet NSs are now known Isolated Cooling NS (ICONSs):old NSs, no longer radio-active Magnetars: transient HE sources, with B ≈ G Compact Central Objects: Not Crab-like ! Nature is unclear Rotating RAdioTransients (RRATs): bursting (otherwise quiescent) radio PSRs High-B radio PSRs:magnetars by definition not by reputation  UV-to-IR observations become more and more important !  Critical to determine the NS nature (isolated, binary, isolated+disk)  HST archaeo-astronomy to identify (via PM) NS parental clusters, study their properties, trace the origin of the NS diversity Pulone et al.2008 BVI ACS/WFC BVI 2.2m/WFI

Conclusions HST has played so far a fundamental role in NS astronomy After SM4, HST can play a role as (or even more) fundamental –The WFC3 (with ACS) will be unique for astrometry and stellar population studies –WFC3+COS will allow to obtain NSs multi-λ SED, especially in the crucial UV and IR bands –The repaired ACS+STIS will offer timing+polarimetry, crucial for NS astronomy and so far little explored due to technical failures HST has posed the questions, now it can find the answers