Diagnostics of the super-relativistic wind by broad band energy spectrum of the wind powered nebulae Original Research Article

The pulsar-wind-powered synchrotron nebulae are used as carolimeters to measure the parameters of the relativistic wind: using the observed luminosity and the two characteristic photon energies of a synchrotron nebula, we derive the Lorentz factor γw and the magnetization parameter σ of the wind and also the nebula field B. The method is applied to the nebulae observed with ASCA, and we obtain γw ≈ (4.5−14)×107(B/10μG)1/2, and σ ≈ 10−3 for the middle-aged pulsars. The dominance of the kinetic energy in the wind persists even for the slower pulsars than the Crab, and seems to be a general feature of the pulsar wind.