The brightening of the pulsar wind nebula of PSR B0540--69 after its spin-down rate transition

Abstract

It is believed that an isolated pulsar loses its rotational energy mainly through a relativistic wind consisting of electrons, positrons and possibly Poynting flux\cite{Pacini1973,Rees1974,Kennel1984}. As it expands, this wind may eventually be terminated by a shock, where particles can be accelerated to energies of X-ray synchrotron emission, and a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) is usually detectable surrounding a young energetic pulsar\cite{Pacini1973,Rees1974,Kennel1984}. However, the nature and/or energetics of these physical processes remain very uncertain, largely because they typically cannot be studied in a time-resolved fashion. Here we show that the X-ray PWN around the young pulsar PSR B0540--69 brightens gradually up to 32$\pm8\%$ over the mean previous flux, after a sudden spin-down rate ($\dot{\nu}$) transition (SRT) by $\sim36\%$\ in December 2011, which has very different properties from a traditional pulsar glitch\cite{Marshall2015}. No evidence is seen for any change in the pulsed X-ray emission. We conclude that the SRT results from a sudden change in the pulsar magnetosphere that increases the pulsar wind power and hence the PWN X-ray emission. The X-ray light curve of the PWN suggests a mean life time of the particles of $397\pm374$\,days, corresponding to a magnetic field strength of $0.78_{-0.28}^{+4.50}$\,mG in the PWN.