Chandra and Spitzer Constraints on the Evolution of G54.1+0.3 and 3C 58
Patrick Slane (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
The injection of particles and magnetic flux from a rapidly-rotating neutron star into its surroundings produces a synchrotron-emitting bubble known as a pulsar wind nebula (PWN). The particle spectrum injected into the nebula, as well as the density profile of the material into which the nebula expands, strongly constrain its spectral and dynamical evolution. Here I describe recent work using Chandra and Spitzer observations to constrain the spectrum at the innermost regions of 3C 58, for comparison with the broadband spectrum of the entire nebula, and the identification of a shell of emission surrounding G54.1+0.3, presumably corresponding to the previously unseen ambient material into which the PWN is evolving.