Schedule Feb 07, 2006
Pulsar Kicks and Spins
Roger Romani (Stanford)

Chandra X-ray imaging has shown that equatorial tori, often with polar jets, are very common in young pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). We review how simple models of these toroidal structures can provide (nearly) model-independent measurements of the neutron star spin orientation. Abetted by recent progress in measuring pulsar proper motions and ininterpreting polarization observations, the PWN images give a set of young pulsars for which we can compare the linear and spin angular momentum vectors. If preserved since core collapse, these vectors give an important new handle on kick dynamics and, less directly, core collapse physics. Early modeling of the data set shows significant constraint on the pulsar initial spin and kick amplitude and timescale. We comment briefly on other kick constraints and onthe connection with core modeling.

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