English

A binary origin of ultra-long period radio pulsars

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2025-07-02 v1

Abstract

We propose a possible binary evolution model for the formation of ultra-long period pulsars (ULPPs). The model involves two key stages: first, a neutron star (NS) in wide binaries undergoes an effective spin-down phase through wind-fed accretion from its massive stellar companion; second, the supernova explosion of the companion leads to the disruption of the binary system, and produces two isolated compact stars. One of the them is the first-born, slowly rotating NSs, and our binary and spin evolution calculations show that the spin periods range from 0.1\lesssim 0.1 s to 108\gtrsim 10^8 s. This offers a possible formation channel for some of the long-period radio transients. We estimate that the formation rate of such systems in the Milky Way is approximately about 10610^{-6} yr1\rm yr^{-1}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.00946,
  title  = {A binary origin of ultra-long period radio pulsars},
  author = {Ying-Han Mao and Xiang-Dong Li and Dong Lai and Zhu-Ling Deng and Hao-Ran Yang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.00946},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

6 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters