Discovery of the Young, Energetic Radio Pulsar PSR J1105-6107

Abstract

We report the discovery and follow-up timing observations of the 63 ms radio pulsar, PSR J1105-6107. The pulsar is young, having a characteristic age of only 63 kyr and, from its dispersion measure, is estimated to be at a distance of ~7 kpc from the Sun. We consider its possible association with the nearby supernova remnant G290.1-0.8 (MSH 11-61A); an association requires that the pulsar's proper motion be ~22 mas/yr (corresponding to ~650 km/s for a distance of 7 kpc) directed away from the remnant center, assuming that the characteristic age is the true age. The pulsar's spin-down luminosity, 2.5 x 10^{36} erg/s, is in the top 1% of all known pulsar spin-down luminosities. Given its estimated distance, PSR J1105-6107 is therefore likely to be observable at high energies. Indeed, it is coincident with the known CGRO/EGRET source 2EG J1103-6106; we consider the possible association and conclude that it is likely.

18 pages (LaTex), 4 figures, to be published in The Astrophysical Journal, preprint also available at http://space.mit.edu/~vicky/papers.html