Related papers: Some evolutionary aspects of the binary stellar sy…
There are now about fifty known radio pulsars in binary systems, including at least five in double neutron star binaries. In some cases, the stellar masses can be directly determined from measurements of relativistic orbital effects. In…
Stars are mostly found in binary and multiple systems, as at least 50% of all solar-like stars have companions - a fraction that goes up to 100% for the most massive stars. Moreover, a large fraction of them will interact in some way or…
Only a handful of binary central stars of planetary nebulae (PNe) are known today, due to the difficulty of detecting their companions. Preliminary results from radial velocity surveys, however, seem to indicate that binarity plays a…
Radio observations of neutron star binary pulsar systems have constrained strongly the masses of eight neutron stars. Assuming neutron star masses are uniformly distributed between lower and upper bounds $m_l$ and $m_u$, the observations…
Among a dozen known magnetar candidates there are no binary objects. As an estimate of a fraction of binary neutron stars is about 10% it is reasonable to address the question of solitarity of magnetars, to estimate theoretically the…
The measurement or constraint of the masses of neutron stars and their binary companions tests theories of neutron star structure and of pulsar formation and evolution. We have measured the rate of the general relativistic advance of the…
Binaries containing a stellar-mass black hole and a recycled radio pulsar have so far eluded detection. We present a focused investigation of the formation and evolution of these systems in the Galactic disk, highlighting the factors that…
Millisecond pulsars are thought to be neutron stars that have been spun-up by accretion of matter from a binary companion. Although most are in binary systems, some 30% are solitary, and their origin is therefore mysterious. PSR J1719-1438,…
The discovery of the highly relativistic neutron star (NS) binary (in which both NS's are pulsars) not only increases the estimated merging rate for the two NS's by a large factor, but also adds the missing link in the double helium star…
We present in this article an overview of the problem of neutron star masses. After a brief appraisal of the methods employed to determine the masses of neutron stars in binary systems, the existing sample of measured masses is presented,…
Neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes are the remnants of massive stars, which ended their lives in supernova explosions. These exotic objects can only be studied in relatively rare cases. If they are interacting with close companions…
Nearby companions alter the evolution of massive stars in binary systems. Using a sample of Galactic massive stars in nearby young clusters, we simultaneously measure all intrinsic binary characteristics relevant to quantify the frequency…
Close to 70 radio pulsars have now been discovered in 23 globular clusters, with a record 22 pulsars observed in 47 Tuc alone. Accurate timing solutions, including positions in the cluster, are known for many of the pulsars. These recent…
The masses of stars including stellar remnants are almost exclusively known from binary systems. In this work, we study gravitational microlensing of faint background galaxies by isolated neutron stars (pulsars). We show that the resulting…
During the past 20 years, the idea that non-spherical planetary nebulae (PN) may need a binary or planetary interaction to be shaped was discussed by various authors. It is now generally agreed that the varied morphologies of PN cannot be…
The masses of compact objects like white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes are fundamental to astrophysics, but very difficult to measure. We present the results of an analysis of subluminous B (sdB) stars in close binary systems with…
Binary stars are pairs of stars that are gravitationally bound, providing in some cases accurate measurements of their masses and radii. As such, they serve as excellent testbeds for the theory of stellar structure and evolution. Moreover,…
Binary pulsar systems are superb probes of stellar and binary evolution and the physics of extreme environments. In a survey with the Arecibo telescope, we have found PSR J1903+0327, a radio pulsar with a rotational period of 2.15 ms in a…
We review the main properties, demographics and applications of binary and millisecond radio pulsars. Our knowledge of these exciting objects has greatly increased in recent years, mainly due to successful surveys which have brought the…
We report here on two complementary population synthesis studies which relate directly to the formation and evolution of neutron star binaries in globular clusters. In the first, we compute the probability of retaining neutron stars in…