Related papers: Stellar Forensics II: Millisecond Pulsar Binaries
The results of long-term surveys of radial velocities of cool Ap and Am stars are presented. There are two samples, one of about 100 Ap stars and the other of 86 Am stars. Both have been observed with the CORAVEL scanner from Observatoire…
A solitary millisecond pulsar, if near the mass limit, and undergoing a phase transition, either first or second order, provided the transition is to a substantially more compressible phase, will emit a blatantly obvious…
We searched for eclipses of two millisecond pulsars, PSR J1807-2459 and PSR B1908+00. These pulsars are in very low mass binary systems with orbital parameters similar to those of eclipsing binaries. Observations were made with the GBT at…
The observed masses, radii and temperatures of 60 medium- to long-period binaries, most of which contain a cool, evolved star and a hotter less-evolved one, are compared with theoretical models which include (a) core convective…
We investigate the statistical evolution of magnetic neutron stars recycled in Low Mass Binary (LMB) systems, simulating synthetic populations. Irrespective to the details of the physical models, we find to be significant the fraction of…
We study the evolution of close binary systems in order to account for the existence of the recently observed binary system containing the most massive millisecond pulsar ever detected, PSR J0740+6620, and its ultra-cool helium white dwarf…
We present rotation periods for the solar-type primary stars in 13 close (a~< 5 AU) single-lined spectroscopic binaries with known orbital periods (P) and eccentricities (e). All binaries are members of the open clusters M35 (150Myr) and…
We report the optical discovery of the companion to the 2 M_sun millisecond pulsar PSR J1614-2230. The optical colors show that the 0.5 M_sun companion is a 2.2 Gyr old He-CO white dwarf. We infer that $\dot{M}$ during the accretion phase…
Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are believed to be very old neutron stars (NSs) whose age may exceed significantly $10^8$ yrs. Although cooling scenarios of isolated NSs predict for that age a surface temperature $T_s\sim 10^4$ K, observations…
Deriving precise stellar ages is a challenging task. Consequently, age-dependent relations - such as the age-metallicity and age-velocity dispersion relations of the Milky Way, or the age-rotation-activity relation of low-mass stars - are…
Using pulsewidth data for 872 isolated radio pulsars we test the hypothesis that pulsars evolve through a progressive narrowing of the emission cone combined with progressive alignment of the spin and magnetic axes. The new data provide…
We present an analysis of the apsidal motion and light curve parameters of 54 never-before-studied galactic Algol-type binaries. This is the first analysis of such a large sample of eccentric eclipsing binaries in our Galaxy, and has…
Repeatedly flaring X-ray binaries have recently been discovered in NGC 4697 by Sivakoff and collaborators. We show that these flares can be explained as the result of eccentric binaries in globular clusters which accrete more rapidly at…
Pulsar motions in our Galaxy from their birth until 2 Gyr are studied statistically via Monte-Carlo simulation of $2\times 10^5$ pulsars with the best available representation of the Galactic potential. We find that the distribution of…
The spin-down of a millisecond pulsar in a compact binary system leads to self-energy losses, that cause the binary's orbital period to increase (the effect being of first post-Newtonian (1PN) order). If the pulsar's period-derivative is…
Gyrochronology enables the derivation of ages of late-type main sequence stars based on their rotation periods and a mass proxy, such as color. It has been explored in open clusters, but a connection to field stars has yet to be…
Eccentric binaries known as heartbeat stars experience strong dynamical tides as the stars pass through periastron, providing a laboratory to study tidal interactions. We measure the rotation periods of 24 heartbeat systems, using the…
We present results of timing measurements of the binary millisecond pulsar PSR J2145-0750. Combining timing data obtained with the Effelsberg and Lovell radio telescopes we measure a significant timing parallax of 2.0(6) mas placing the…
We examine a number of evolutionary scenarios for the recently discovered class of accretion-powered millisecond X-ray pulsars in ultracompact binaries, including XTE J0929-314 and XTE J1751-305, with orbital periods of 43.6 and 42.4…
Precision tests of general relativity can be conducted by observing binary pulsars. Theories with massive fields exist to explain a variety of phenomena from dark energy to the strong CP problem. Existing pulsar binaries, such as the white…