On the nature and evolution of the unique binary pulsar J1903+0327

By P. Freire, Cees G. Bassa, N. Wex, Ingrid Stairs, David J. Champion, S. Ransom, P. Lazarus, Victoria Kaspi, Jason W. T. Hessels, Michael Kramer and 9 more. 2010

276 citations recorded by the source corpus.

PSR J1903+0327, a millisecond pulsar in an eccentric (e = 0.44) 95-d orbit with an ∼ 1M � companion poses a challenge to our understanding of stellar evolution in binary and multiplestar systems. Here we describe optical and radio observations which rule out most of the scenarios proposed to explain formation of this system. Radio timing measurements of three post-Keplerian effects yield the most precise measurement of the mass of a millisecond pulsar to date: 1.667 ± 0.021 solar masses (99.7 per cent confidence limit). This rules out some equations of state for superdense matter; furthermore, it is consistent with the spin-up of the pulsar by mass accretion, as suggested by its short spin period and low magnetic field. Optical spectroscopy of a proposed main-sequence counterpart shows that its orbital motion mirrors the pulsar’s 95-d orbit; being therefore its binary companion. This finding rules out a previously suggested scenario which proposes that the system is presently a hierarchical triple. Conventional binary evolution scenarios predict that, after recycling a neutron star into a millisecond pulsar, the binary companion should become a white dwarf and its orbit should be nearly circular. This suggests that if PSR J1903+0327 was recycled, its present companion was not responsible for it. The optical detection also provides a measurement of the systemic radial velocity of the binary; this and the proper motion measured from pulsar timing allow the determination of the systemic 3D velocity in the Galaxy. We find that the system is always within 270 pc of the plane of the Galaxy, but always more than 3 kpc away from the Galactic Centre. Thus an exchange interaction in a dense stellar environment (like a globular cluster or the Galactic Centre) is not likely to be the origin of this system. We suggest that after the supernova that formed it, the neutron star was in a tight orbit with a main-sequence star and the present companion was a tertiary farther out. The neutron star then accreted matter

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/106f31b5cfbdbbeb5a53e59287e128fd90bd1079

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Citations in the corpus

Strange star equation of state fits the refined mass measurement of 12 pulsars and predicts their radii (2013, methodology): “However, such doubts disappeared, with accurate mass determinations for PSR J1614+2230 (1.97 ± 0.04 M ; Demorest et al. 2010) and PSR J1903+0327 (1.67 ± 0.02 M ; Freire et al. 2011), both relying on measurements of Shapiro delay, which is not easily mimicked by other processes.”
ON THE MASS DISTRIBUTION AND BIRTH MASSES OF NEUTRON STARS (2012, unknown): “Freire et al. 2011; 11.”
ACCELERATING COMPACT OBJECT MERGERS IN TRIPLE SYSTEMS WITH THE KOZAI RESONANCE: A MECHANISM FOR “PROMPT” TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE, GAMMA-RAY BURSTS, AND OTHER EXOTICA (2010, background): “A discussion of one such system in the context of Kozai oscillations in a hierarchical triple system is given in Champion et al. (2008) and Freire et al. (2011) for the system PSR J1903+0327.”
The NANOGrav 11-year Data Set: High-precision Timing of 45 Millisecond Pulsars (2017, methodology): “Previous studies using other data sets interpreted the observed ẇ values for PSR J1903 +0327 (Freire et al. 2011) and PSR J2234+0611 (Antoniadis et al. 2016) as being due to general relativistic orbital precession, while F16 used the NG9 data set to conclude the same for the ẇ of PSRJ1600−3053.”
PULSAR J0453+1559: A DOUBLE NEUTRON STAR SYSTEM WITH A LARGE MASS ASYMMETRY (2015, background): “This has led to speculation that all NSs might be born within this narrow band, and that the large masses observed in some MSPs like PSR J1903+0327 (Freire et al. 2011), PSR J1614−2230 (Demorest et al. 2010), and PSR J0348+0432 (Antoniadis et al. 2013) are due to accretion.”
Maximum mass of neutron stars and strange neutron-star cores (2012, result): “Such a low Mmax is only marginally consistent with 1.44 M of the Hulse-Taylor pulsar, but was contradicted by 1.67 ± 0.04 M of PSR J1903-0327 (Champion et al. 2008; a more precise value has been recently obtained by Freire et al. 2011).”
Formation of millisecond pulsars with CO white dwarf companions – II. Accretion, spin-up, true ages and comparison to MSPs with He white dwarf companions (2012, background): “These simplifications become a problem when trying to probe the formation and the evolution of observed recycled radio pulsars located near the classical spin-up line for Eddington accretion in the PṖ–diagram (e.g. Freire et al. 2011).”
Testing Relativistic Gravity with Radio Pulsars (2014, unknown): “667(7)M [32] Mass of white-dwarf companion: 0.”