A pulsar in a binary with a compact object in the mass gap between neutron stars and black holes
Abstract
Among the compact objects observed in gravitational wave merger events a few have masses in the gap between the most massive neutron stars (NSs) and least massive black holes (BHs) known. Their nature and the formation of their merging binaries are not well understood. We report on pulsar timing observations using the Karoo Array Telescope (MeerKAT) of PSR J0514-4002E, an eccentric binary millisecond pulsar in the globular cluster NGC 1851 with a total binary mass of solar masses. The companion to the pulsar is a compact object and its mass (between and solar masses, 95% confidence interval) is in the mass gap, so it either is a very massive NS or a low-mass BH. We propose the companion was formed by a merger between two earlier NSs.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2401.09872,
title = {A pulsar in a binary with a compact object in the mass gap between neutron stars and black holes},
author = {Ewan D. Barr and Arunima Dutta and Paulo C. C. Freire and Mario Cadelano and Tasha Gautam and Michael Kramer and Cristina Pallanca and Scott M. Ransom and Alessandro Ridolfi and Benjamin W. Stappers and Thomas M. Tauris and Vivek Venkatraman Krishnan and Norbert Wex and Matthew Bailes and Jan Behrend and Sarah Buchner and Marta Burgay and Weiwei Chen and David J. Champion and C. -H. Rosie Chen and Alessandro Corongiu and Marisa Geyer and Y. P. Men and Prajwal V. Padmanabh and Andrea Possenti},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.09872},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
41 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, to be published in Science