An increased estimate of the merger rate of double neutron stars from observations of a highly relativistic system

By M. Burgay, N. D'Amico, A. Possenti, R. Manchester, Andrew G. Lyne, B. Joshi, M. Mclaughlin, Michael Kramer, J. Sarkissian, F. Camilo and 3 more. Nature, 2003

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The merger of close binary systems containing two neutron stars should produce a burst of gravitational waves, as predicted by the theory of general relativity. A reliable estimate of the double-neutron-star merger rate in the Galaxy is crucial in order to predict whether current gravity wave detectors will be successful in detecting such bursts. Present estimates of this rate are rather low, because we know of only a few double-neutron-star binaries with merger times less than the age of the Universe. Here we report the discovery of a 22-ms pulsar, PSR J0737–3039, which is a member of a highly relativistic double-neutron-star binary with an orbital period of 2.4 hours. This system will merge in about 85 Myr, a time much shorter than for any other known neutron-star binary. Together with the relatively low radio luminosity of PSR J0737–3039, this timescale implies an order-of-magnitude increase in the predicted merger rate for double-neutron-star systems in our Galaxy (and in the rest of the Universe).

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3583e88d5fec1e994df1e785490558ca98237b1e

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Citations in the corpus

Testing Relativistic Gravity with Radio Pulsars (2014, background): “m [31]. 2.2 The Double Pulsar | The best test for Einstein’s quadrupole formula, and more In 2003 a binary system was discovered where, at rst, one member was identied as a pulsar with a 23ms period [72]. About half a year later, the companion was also recognized as a radio pulsar with a period of 2”
Ultra-stripped supernovae: progenitors and fate (2015, methodology): “For comparison we note that the DNS system with the fastest spinning recycled NS known to date is the double pulsar PSR J0737−3039 (Burgay et al. 2003) which has a spin period ofPspin = 23 ms.”
On the astrophysical robustness of the neutron star merger r-process (2012, background): “For example, an initial semi-major axis of 1 R and an eccentricity of 0.9 lead to a merger only 1 Myr after binary formation (for comparison we note that the projected semi-major axis of the double pulsar PSR J0737-3039 A+B (Burgay et al. 2003; Kramer & Stairs 2008) is 0.6 R ).”
A new route towards merging massive black holes (2016, background): “Various double neutron star systems have also been found, most importantly the Hulse-Taylor system (Hulse & Taylor 1975; Weisberg et al. 2010) and more recently the double pulsar PSR J0737-3039 (Burgay et al. 2003; Kramer et al. 2006), whose orbital decay has unambiguously confirmed Einstein’s gravi”
The Effects of Binary Evolution on the Dynamics of Core Collapse and Neutron Star Kicks (2003, background): “11 The pulsar that formed last in the recently discovered doublepulsar binary PSR J0737-3039 [Burgay et al. 2003; Lyne et al. 2004] has a low mass of ∼ 1.25 M⊙, although at present it is not clear whether the formation of the second pulsar is consistent with a low-velocity kick.”