Constraints on Pulsar Evolution: The Joint Period-Spindown Distribution of Millisecond Pulsars
Abstract
We calculate the joint period-spindown (P-Pdot) distributions of millisecond radio pulsars (MSRP) for the standard evolutionary model in order to test whether the observed MSRPs are the unequivocal descendants of millisecond X-ray pulsars (MSXP). The P-Pdot densities implied by the standard evolutionary model compared with observations suggest that there is a statistically significant overabundance of young/high magnetic field MSRPs. Taking biases due to observational selection effects into account, it is unlikely that MSRPs have evolved from a single coherent progenitor population that loses energy via magnetic dipole radiation after the onset of radio emission. By producing the P-Pdot probability map, we show with more than 95% confidence that the fastest spinning millisecond pulsars with high magnetic fields, e.g. PSR B1937+21, cannot be produced by the observed MSXPs within the framework of the standard model.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0902.0604,
title = {Constraints on Pulsar Evolution: The Joint Period-Spindown Distribution of Millisecond Pulsars},
author = {Bulent Kiziltan and Stephen E. Thorsett},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0902.0604},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
11 pages, 2 figures, accepted by ApJL