Related papers: Spin Rates and Magnetic Fields of Millisecond Puls…
Observations using the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer have discovered dozens of accreting neutron stars with millisecond spin periods in low-mass binary star systems. Eighteen are millisecond X-ray pulsars powered by accretion or nuclear…
Despite considerable evidence verifying that millisecond pulsars are spun up through sustained accretion in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), it has proven surprisingly difficult to actually detect millisecond X-ray pulsars in LMXBs. There…
We compare the rotation rate of neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) with the orbital period of the binaries. We find that, while short orbital period LMXBs span a range of neutron star rotation rates, all the long period LMXBs…
Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are generally agreed to originate in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), in which mass transfer onto the neutron stars spins them up to their observed, fast rotation. The lack of MSPs and LMXBs rotating near break-up…
In this paper we discuss the spin-equilibrium of accreting neutron stars in LMXBs. We demonstrate that, when combined with a naive spin-up torque, the observed data leads to inferred magnetic fields which are at variance with those of…
Using the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RossiXTE), astronomers have discovered that disk-accreting neutron stars with weak magnetic fields produce three distinct types of high-frequency X-ray oscillations. These oscillations are powered by…
X-ray timing of neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) with RXTE has since 1996 revealed several distinct high-frequency phenomena. Among these are oscillations during thermonuclear (type-I) bursts, which (in addition to…
In the last 20 years our understanding of the millisecond pulsar (MSP) population changed dramatically. Thanks to RXTE, we discovered that neutron stars in LMXBs spins at 200-750 Hz frequencies, and indirectly confirmed the recycling…
We examine the spin-up of low luminosity, low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) to millisecond pulsars (MSPs). In the conventional spin-up model of the Ghosh & Lamb type, where the stellar magnetic field interacts with the Keplerian accretion…
An understanding of spin frequency ($\nu$) evolution of neutron stars in the low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) phase is essential to explain the observed $\nu$-distribution of millisecond pulsars (MSPs), and to probe the stellar and binary…
Basic ideas about the torques on the neutron star and the existence of an equilibrium rotation period followed from the recognition that most X-ray binaries contain accretion powered neutron stars. The evolution of binaries through a phase…
Typical radio pulsars are magnetized neutron stars that are born rapidly rotating and slow down as they age on time scales of 10 to 100 million years. However, millisecond radio pulsars spin very rapidly even though many are billions of…
It is thought that neutron stars in low-mass binary systems can accrete matter and angular momentum from the companion star and be spun-up to millisecond rotational periods. During the accretion stage, the system is called a low-mass X-ray…
Millisecond X-ray pulsars consist of a rapidly-spinning neutron star accreting from a low-mass stellar companion, and are the long-sought evolutionary progenitors of millisecond radio pulsars, as well as promising candidate sources for…
Millisecond pulsars are neutron stars (NSs) that are thought to have been spun-up by mass accretion from a stellar companion. It is unknown whether there is a natural brake for this process, or if it continues until the centrifugal breakup…
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…
Rotation-powered millisecond radio pulsars have been spun up to their present spin period by a $10^8$ - $10^9$ yr long X-ray-bright phase of accretion of matter and angular momentum in a low-to-intermediate mass binary system. Recently, the…
The discovery of millisecond pulsations from neutron stars in low mass X-ray binary (LMXB) systems has substantiated the theoretical prediction that links millisecond radio pulsars (MSRPs) and LMXBs. Since then, the process that produces…
A millisecond pulsar is a neutron star that has been substantially spun up by accretion from a binary companion. A previously unrecognized factor governing the spin evolution of such pulsars is the crucial effect of non-steady or transient…
While the distribution of spin periods of High Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXBs) spans more than four orders of magnitude (69ms - 25min), the few known X-ray pulsars accreting from very low mass companions (<1 Msun) have very similar periods…