English

PSR J0210+5845; An ultra wide binary pulsar with a B6V main-sequence star companion

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2023-12-05 v1

Abstract

We report on radio timing observations of PSR J0210+5845 which reveal large deviations from typical pulsar spin-down behaviour. We interpret these deviations as being due to binary motion around the V=13.5V=13.5 star 2MASS J02105640++5845176, which is coincident in celestial position and distance with the pulsar. Archival observations and new optical spectroscopy identify this star as a B6V star with a temperature of Teff14000T_\mathrm{eff}\approx 14\,000K and a mass of Mc=3.5M_\mathrm{c}= 3.5 to 3.83.8M_\odot, making it the lowest mass main-sequence star known orbiting a non-recycled pulsar. We found that the timing observations constrain the binary orbit to be wide and moderately eccentric, with an orbital period of Pb=4714+40P_\mathrm{b}=47^{+40}_{-14}yr and eccentricity e=0.460.07+0.10e=0.46^{+0.10}_{-0.07}. We predict that the next periastron passage will occur between 2030 and 2034. Due to the low companion mass, we find that the probability for a system with the properties of PSR J0210+5845 and its binary companion to survive the supernova is low. We show that a low velocity and fortuitously directed natal kick is required for the binary to remain bound during the supernova explosion, and argue that an electron-capture supernova is a plausible formation scenario for the pulsar.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2312.01892,
  title  = {PSR J0210+5845; An ultra wide binary pulsar with a B6V main-sequence star companion},
  author = {E. van der Wateren and C. G. Bassa and G. H. Janssen and I. V. Yanes-Rizo and J. Casares and G. Nelemans and B. W. Stappers and C. M. Tan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.01892},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

Accepted to A&A