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Proper Motion of the Crab Pulsar Revisited

C. -Y. Ng, Roger W. Romani

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/0602255

Abstract

It has been suggested that the Crab pulsar's proper motion is well aligned with the symmetry axis of the pulsar wind nebula. We have re-visited this question, examining over 6 years of F547M WFPC2 chip 3 images to obtain a best-fit value of μ = 14.9 0.8mas/yr at PA 278 3. At 26 3 to the nebula axis, this substantially relaxes constraints on the birth kick of this pulsar. Such misalignment allows the momentum to be imparted over 1s timescales.

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