HST and VLT observations of isolated neutron stars
Caraveo, P. A.; de Luca, A.; Mignani, R. P.; Pavlov, G. G.
Germany, United States, Italy
Abstract
New results of optical observations of isolated pulsars and their environments are presented. Very Large Telescopes observations of PSR J0108-1431 set an upper limit of B~=28.6 on its optical flux, implying a neutron star surface temperature T<8.8×104 K (for d=200 pc, R∞=13 km). HST proper motion measurement of the PSR 1929+10 counterpart secured its optical identification. Finally, deep observations of the Vela pulsar field did not confirm the presence of an optical pulsar wind nebula (PWN).