PSR J0205+6449 is a young ({ \approx} 5400 years), Crab-like pulsar detected in radio and at X and { \gamma}-ray energies and has the third largest spin-down flux among known rotation powered pulsars. It also powers a bright synchrotron nebula detected in the optical and X-rays. At a distance of { \approx} 3.2 kpc and with an extinction comparable to the Crab, PSR J0205+6449 is an obvious target for optical observations. We observed PSR J0205+6449 with several optical facilities, including 8m class ground-based telescopes, such as the Gemini and the Gran Telescopio Canarias. We detected a point source, at a significance of 5.5{ \sigma}, of magnitude i { \approx} 25.5, at the centre of the optical synchrotron nebula, coincident with the very accurate Chandra and radio positions of the pulsar. Thus, we discovered a candidate optical counterpart to PSR J0205+6449. The pulsar candidate counterpart is also detected in the g ({ \approx}27.4) band and weakly in the r ({ \approx}26.2) band. Its optical spectrum is fit by a power law with photon index { \Gamma}0 = 1.9{ \pm}0.5, proving that the optical emission if of non-thermal origin, is as expected for a young pulsar. The optical photon index is similar to the X-ray one ({ \Gamma}X = 1.77{ \pm}0.03), although the optical fluxes are below the extrapolation of the X-ray power spectrum. This would indicate the presence of a double spectral break between the X-ray and optical energy range, at variance with what is observed for the Crab and Vela pulsars, but similar to the Large Magellanic Cloud pulsar PSR B0540-69.
Categories: astro-ph.HE