PSR J1124-5916: discovery of a young, energetic pulsar in the supernova remnant G292.0+1.8

Abstract

We report the discovery with the Parkes radio telescope of a pulsar associated with the ~ 1700 yr-old oxygen-rich composite supernova remnant G292.0+1.8. PSR J1124-5916 has period 135 ms and period derivative 7.4e-13, implying characteristic age 2900 yr, spin-down luminosity 1.2e37 erg/s, and surface magnetic field strength 1.0e13 G. Association between the pulsar and the synchrotron nebula previously identified with Chandra within this supernova remnant is confirmed by the subsequent detection of X-ray pulsations by Hughes et al. The pulsar's flux density at 1400 MHz is very small, S ~ 0.08 mJy, but the radio luminosity of Sd^2 ~ 2 mJy kpc^2 is not especially so, although it is one order of magnitude smaller than that of the least luminous young pulsar previously known. This discovery suggests that very deep radio searches should be done for pulsations from pulsar wind nebulae in which the central pulsed source is yet to be detected and possibly other more exotic neutron stars.