Searching for a Pulsar in SN1987A

Abstract

SN 1987A offered a unique opportunity to detect a pulsar at the very beginning of its life and to study its early evolution. Despite many searches at radio and optical wavelengths, no pulsar has yet been detected. Details of a recent search using the Parkes radio telescope are given. Limits on the X-ray, optical and radio luminosity of a point source at the centre of SN 1987A place limits on the properties of a central neutron star. However, neither these nor the pulsar limits preclude the presence of a relatively slowly rotating neutron star (P >~ 100 ms) with a moderate surface dipole magnetic field in SN 1987A. Galactic studies suggest that a significant fraction of pulsars are born with parameters in this range. In view of this, continued searches for a pulsar in SN 1987A are certainly justified.

10 pages, 3 figures. To appear in "Supernova 1987A: Twenty Years After: Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursters", edited by S. Immler, K. W. Weiler and R. McCray, American Institute of Physics, New York, 2007, in press