Jet and counter-jet in transonic pulsar wind nebulae

Abstract

Abstract X-ray observations show that a jet and a counter-jet in pulsar wind nebulae often differ one from another. Sometimes one of the jets is not observed at all. We show that the most likely reason for this difference is the relative motion of a pulsar and an ambient matter. Even the slow (subsonic or transonic) ambient matter stream in the pulsar rest frame strongly affects the jets, making the windward jet bright and dynamic, and the leeward jet dim and diffuse. The effect is illustrated using a relativistic MHD model of a double-torus pulsar wind nebula. The model is shown to explain reasonably well the observational appearance of the jets in the Vela nebula - a double-torus object which evolves in a transonic stream initiated by the passage of the reverse shock of the parent supernova.