High-resolution Very Large Array Radio Observations of the Boomerang Pulsar Wind Nebula
- 1The University of Hong Kong
- 2University College London
Abstract
We present a radio polarimetric study of the Boomerang pulsar wind nebula G106.65+2.96 with Very Large Array (VLA) observations at the 6 GHz band. Our high-resolution image discovers new small-scale features in the nebula, including an elliptical core of 40″ × 20″ surrounding the central pulsar and a 2 ′ long arc wrapping around the core in the north. The latter shows a gap from the core, and it consists of a bright lobe in the northwest and a tongue-like structure in the northeast. These could be resulting from the pulsar wind interaction with the environment. Our polarization measurement reveals a highly ordered magnetic field with toroidal geometry. The small-scale features are all highly linearly polarized. In particular, the lobe has a polarization fraction of ∼60%, close to the synchrotron limit. This is also much higher than the value measured at a lower frequency, implying significant depolarization. We show that this can be explained by Faraday rotation in the nebula, and we constructed a simple 3D model accordingly to estimate a magnetic field strength of ∼25–70 μ G, assuming a median inclination angle of 60°, which uncertainty arises from the uncertainty in the flux measurement and its distance.
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BibTeX
@article{lai2026highresolution,
title = {{High-resolution Very Large Array Radio Observations of the Boomerang Pulsar Wind Nebula}},
author = {Paul C. W. Lai and C.-Y. Ng and Shumeng Zhang},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/ae9f59},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae9f59},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - High-resolution Very Large Array Radio Observations of the Boomerang Pulsar Wind Nebula
AU - Paul C. W. Lai
AU - C.-Y. Ng
AU - Shumeng Zhang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
JO - The Astrophysical Journal
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/ae9f59
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae9f59
AB - We present a radio polarimetric study of the Boomerang pulsar wind nebula G106.65+2.96 with Very Large Array (VLA) observations at the 6 GHz band. Our high-resolution image discovers new small-scale features in the nebula, including an elliptical core of 40″ × 20″ surrounding the central pulsar and a 2 ′ long arc wrapping around the core in the north. The latter shows a gap from the core, and it consists of a bright lobe in the northwest and a tongue-like structure in the northeast. These could be resulting from the pulsar wind interaction with the environment. Our polarization measurement reveals a highly ordered magnetic field with toroidal geometry. The small-scale features are all highly linearly polarized. In particular, the lobe has a polarization fraction of ∼60%, close to the synchrotron limit. This is also much higher than the value measured at a lower frequency, implying significant depolarization. We show that this can be explained by Faraday rotation in the nebula, and we constructed a simple 3D model accordingly to estimate a magnetic field strength of ∼25–70 μ G, assuming a median inclination angle of 60°, which uncertainty arises from the uncertainty in the flux measurement and its distance.
SN - 0004-637X
SN - 1538-4357
ER -