BeppoSAX observations of the young pulsar in the Kes 75 Supernova Remnant

Abstract

We present the results of BeppoSAX observations of the young X-ray pulsar PSR J1846-0258, recently discovered at the center of the composite supernova remnant Kes 75. The pulsar (plus nebula) spectrum can be fitted by an absorbed power law with photon index alpha_ph=2.16+/-0.15, N_H=(4.7+/-0.8) x 10^22 cm^-2, and unabsorbed flux ~3.9x10^-11 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (2-10 keV). By joining two observations taken at an interval of two weeks we have been able to obtain a precise measurement of the spin period (P=324.818968+/-0.000006 ms). This value, when combined with previous measurements, cannot be fitted by a smooth frequency evolution with a canonical braking index n=3. With the hypothesis of no glitches and/or significant timing noise, the braking index would be n=1.86+/-0.08 and, assuming a short initial period, the pulsar age would be \~1700 years, closer to that of the supernova remnant than the simple estimate \tau=P/2\pdot=723 years. Other likely possibilities involve the presence of glitches and lead to a wide range of acceptable ages. For example, we obtain n in the range 1.8-2.5, if a glitch occurred near MJD 51500, while for a glitch between October 1993 and March 1999 we can only get a lower limit of n>1.89.