Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2002-09-13
Astrophys.J. 582 (2003) 978-983
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
15 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Scientific paper
10.1086/344748
We present the results of first deep optical observations of the field of the old ($\sim 10^8$ yr), nearby, isolated pulsar J0108-1431, in an attempt to detect its optical counterpart. The observations were performed using the FORS1 instrument at the focus of the European Southern Observatory Antu Telescope of the VLT. Observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) were made to determine an accurate position for the radio pulsar at the current epoch. The imaging data, obtained in the V, B, and U passbands reveal no counterpart at the revised radio position down to $V \simeq 28$, $B\simeq 28.6$ and $U \simeq 26.4$. For a distance of 130 pc, estimated from the pulsar's dispersion measure, our constraints on the optical flux put an upper limit of $T=4.5\times 10^4$ K for the surface temperature of the neutron star, assuming a stellar radius $R_\infty=13$ km. Our new radio position allows us to place an upper limit on the pulsar proper motion of 82 mas yr$^{-1}$ which, for d=130 pc, implies a transverse velocity $\la 50$ km sec$^{-1}$.
Manchester Richard N.
Mignani Roberto P.
Pavlov George G.
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