| The coincident detection of neutrinos with the explosion of Sanduleak-69 202 seemingly confirmed the theoretical scenario of a stellar core collapse and the likely formation of a compact object. If a neutron star is discovered in the remnant, it will be the first compact object with a known progenitor, directly confirming the theory of stellar evolution. The observation of such an object could yield a wealth of information about the star's magnetic field strength, rotation frequency, and other insights into the physics within regions of extremely strong gravitational and magnetic fields.; We searched SN 1987A for the putative pulsar in optical and X-ray bands. Three different techniques were tried in our search: high speed photometer detection of pulsations, bolometric identification of a hot compact object, X-ray spectral search for neutron star signatures. The high speed photometer detection of pulsations would decidedly confirm the pulsar, however the presumed debris field surrounding a new pulsar could be absorbing much of the pulsed radiation. Therefore, we also searched for a hot compact object in the remnant by looking for modulations in the light curve due to possible debris occultations, and X-ray cooling emission from a hot neutron star. We are unable to confirm the existence of a pulsar at this time. From our observations, we set upper limits to both the pulsed and the steady state luminosities from the putative pulsar.; Almost linearly increasing soft X-ray flux is observed from the remnant. Previous interpretations of X-ray origin predict {dollar}sim tsp2{dollar} time dependence to the X-ray flux which appear inconsistent with our analysis. We propose a disk-like progenitor wind surrounding the supernova which could give a time evolution of the shock generated soft X-ray flux consistent with our results. |
