A Radio Pulsar/X-ray Binary Link
Abstract
Radio pulsars with millisecond spin periods are thought to have been spun up by transfer of matter and angular momentum from a low-mass companion star during an X-ray-emitting phase. The spin periods of the neutron stars in several such low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) systems have been shown to be in the millisecond regime, but no radio pulsations have been detected. Here we report on detection and follow-up observations of a nearby radio millisecond pulsar (MSP) in a circular binary orbit with an optically identified companion star. Optical observations indicate that an accretion disk was present in this system within the last decade. Our optical data show no evidence that one exists today, suggesting that the radio MSP has turned on after a recent LMXB phase.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0905.3397,
title = {A Radio Pulsar/X-ray Binary Link},
author = {Anne M. Archibald and Ingrid H. Stairs and Scott M. Ransom and Victoria M. Kaspi and Vladislav I. Kondratiev and Duncan R. Lorimer and Maura A. McLaughlin and Jason Boyles and Jason W. T. Hessels and Ryan Lynch and Joeri van Leeuwen and Mallory S. E. Roberts and Frederick Jenet and David J. Champion and Rachel Rosen and Brad N. Barlow and Bart H. Dunlap and Ronald A. Remillard},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0905.3397},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
published in Science