特殊类型脉冲星的研究进展

脉冲星是演化末期的大质量恒星经过核坍缩形成的产物,它们在天体物理学、粒子物理学和卫星导航等方面具有重要的应用。自脉冲星发现50年来,其观测和理论研究取得了巨大进展。脉冲星主要在射电波段被探测到,部分脉冲星也有X射线和γ射线等波段的辐射,它们的信息非常丰富。根据其不同的观测特征可以把脉冲星分为多种类型。主要对射电、X射线以及γ射线波段的特殊类型脉冲星,包括旋转射电暂现源、间歇脉冲星、态转换X射线脉冲星、磁星、暗X射线孤立中子星、中心致密天体以及γ射线脉冲星的基本性质及其研究进展进行综述。     

脉冲星PSR1951＋32的X射线脉冲辐射

脉冲星ＰＳＲ１９５１＋３２的Ｘ射线脉冲辐射程凌翔，李惕碚，孙学军，马宇蒨，吴枚（中国科学院高能物理研究所，北京１０００３９）主题词：脉冲星－Ｘ射线源１９８７年６月，用频率３８７ＭＨｚ的射电观测发现了脉冲星ＰＳＲ１９５１＋３２［１］，同年７月，在１８０...     

脉冲星参数统计和演化

统计分析了目前发现的几种脉冲星的自转周期和表面磁场以及空间的分布情况,揭示出毫秒脉冲星比普通射电脉冲星、LMXB(低质量X射线双星)比HMXB(高质量X射线双星)的空间分布要更加弥散;孤立毫秒脉冲星自转周期分布的峰值为4.7 ms,而普通脉冲星的相应值为0.6 s,双星中毫秒脉冲星这一值为3.5 ms; FERMI脉冲...     

脉冲星的辐射机理

脉冲星辐射特性和我们熟知的热辐射绝然不同,属于非热辐射。辐射区很小,辐射光度与太阳的光度差不多,而辐射能密度要比太阳的能密度高出十几个数量级。脉冲星的射电辐射是幂律谱和高度线偏振,少数脉冲星还有光学、Ｘ射线和γ射线的脉冲辐射,而且也都是幂律谱。脉冲星的这种非热辐射是由高能带电粒子在磁场中作加速运动所产生的。脉冲星的高能带电粒子是怎样来的?非热辐射又是怎样产生的呢?脉冲星的磁层和光速圆柱脉冲星有没有大气层?地球有大气层,太阳也有大气层,中子星有没有大气层呢?发现脉冲星以前,人们曾推测中子星周围没有大气层存在。…     

一颗与众不同的脉冲星Geminga

最近，一个困扰人们达十几年之久的γ射线源Ｇｅｍｉｎｇａ被证认为Ｘ、γ射线脉冲星，其光学对应体也被确定为一颗光谱偏蓝的２５等星。对Ｇｅｍｉｎｇａ脉冲星的确证说明存在着一类没有射电辐射的脉冲单星。     

孤立脉冲星的X射线光度

本文提出一种物理机制得了到了孤立静冲星的Ｘ射线光度与其自转能损失的理论关系式，它与孤立静脉星的Ｘ射线观测数据是完全符合的。     

星风吸积下的有盘X射线脉冲星

近年来对吸积流的数值模拟工作证实了在星风吸积中吸积盘的存在。本文在此基础上，讨论具有早型伴星的Ｘ射线脉冲星吸积过程中吸积盘与球吸积流的相互作用。我们发现，盘吸积率和球吸积率的相对变化可以导致吸积盘和吸积矩的改变，从而解释了这类脉冲星脉冲周期的复杂变化，我们以典型星ＶｅｌａＸ－１和Ａ０５３５＋２６为例分别作了讨论。     

脉冲星的光度、磁场和演化

中子星是恒星在核能源已经耗尽的情况下引力坍缩的产物。它仍然具有很高的温度 ,热能将以黑体辐射的形式辐射出去 ,但是这种能量通过各种冷却过程而耗散 ,不可能是脉冲星的主要能源。脉冲星的引力特别强 ,如果它是双星系统的成员 ,而且伴星不是致密星时 ,伴星的物质有可能被吸积到脉冲星上 ,被吸积物质的引力势能可以转化为别的能量形式 ,Ｘ射线脉冲双星就属于这种情形。但是大多数脉冲星不是双星系统 ,在约占脉冲星总数 5%的双星系统中 ,绝大多数的伴星都是白矮星或中子星 ,所以引力能不是脉冲星的主要能源。脉冲星的能量来自何方 ?地球有…     

射电脉冲双星和引力辐射的验证

在天文学中,双星系统很平常,已知的恒星有近一半属于双星系统,可谓千千万万。即使对中子星来说,所有伴有Ｘ射线辐射的中子星都是双星系统的成员,也司空见惯。但是,从１９６７年发现脉冲星到１９７４年所发现的１００颗脉冲星都是单星。人们并没有刻意去发现射电脉冲...     

利用费米卫星大面积望远镜对脉冲星的观测研究

费米γ射线空间望远镜(Fermi)自2008年8月观测任务开始以来,以其优越的观测性能开启了γ射线天文学研究的新纪元。其搭载的大面积望远镜(LAT)在脉冲星探测和研究方面取得了巨大的成功。除了探测到已知脉冲星的γ射线脉冲辐射信号外,LAT还能够利用γ射线数据的盲寻技术独立发现脉冲星,此外还提供了大量γ射线源进行射电脉冲搜寻。Fermi-LAT的观测带来了γ射线脉冲星数量的显著增长,确立了脉冲星是银河系内主要的γ射线源,并且探测到了毫秒脉冲星的γ射线辐射。一般来说,在长时标下脉冲星的γ射线辐射流量稳定且脉冲形状多呈现双峰结构,能谱可由具有指数截断的幂律谱描述。综述了利用Fermi-LAT数据寻找脉冲辐射信号的方法和研究γ射线脉冲星所得到的主要结果,并简要介绍了近年来在脉冲星研究方面取得的新成果。     

Studying millisecond pulsars in X-rays

Millisecond pulsars represent an evolutionarily distinct group among rotation-powered pulsars. Outside the radio band, the soft X-ray range (～0.1–10 keV) is most suitable for studying radiative mechanisms operating in these fascinating objects. X-ray observations revealed diverse properties of emission from millisecond pulsars. For the most of them, the bulk of radiation is of a thermal origin, emitted from small spots (polar caps) on the neutron star surface heated by relativistic particles produced in pulsar acceleration zones. On the other hand, a few other very fast rotating pulsars exhibit almost pure nonthermal emission generated, most probably, in pulsar magnetospheres. There are also examples of nonthermal emission detected from X-ray nebulae powered by millisecond pulsars, as well as from pulsar winds shocked in binary systems with millisecond pulsars as companions. These and other most important results obtained from X-ray observations of millisecond pulsars are reviewed in this paper, as well as results from the search for millisecond pulsations in X-ray flux of the radio-quite neutron star RX J1856.5-3754.     

Statistics and Evolution of Pulsars’ Parameters

The rotation periods, surface magnetic field strengths, as well as the spatial distribution of the several kinds of pulsars discovered sofar are analyzed statistically. It is revealed that the spatial distribution of the millisecond pulsars is more dispersive than that of the normal radio pulsars. And that the spatial distribution of the pulsars in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) is also more dispersive than that of the pulsars in high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). The distribution of rotation periods of the isolated millisecond pulsars has a peak at 4.7ms, and the corresponding peak values for the normal radio pulsars and the millisecond pulsars in binaries are 0.6 s and 3.5ms, respectively. The surface magnetic field strengths of the FERMI pulsars (the gamma-ray pulsars observed by the Large Area Telescope/Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope) and normal pulsars are all concentrated around 1012 Gs. It is found also that some young high-energy pulsars are associated with supernova remnants. In combination with the formation and evolution models of pulsars, we have made some remarks on the characteristics of these distributions.     

X-ray bright sources in the Chandra Small Magellanic Cloud Wing Survey – detection of two new pulsars

We investigate the X-ray and optical properties of a sample of X-ray bright sources from the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) Wing Survey. We have detected two new pulsars with pulse periods of 65.8 s (CXOU J010712.6−723533) and 700 s (CXOU J010206.6−714115), and present observations of two previously known pulsars RX J0057.3−7325 (SXP101) and SAX J0103.2−7209 (SXP348). Our analysis has led to three new optical identifications for the detected pulsars. We find long-term optical periods for two of the pulsars, CXOU J010206.6−714115 and SXP101, of 267 and 21.9 d, respectively. Spectral analysis of a subset of the sample shows that the pulsars have harder spectra than the other sources detected. By employing a quantile-based colour–colour analysis we are able to separate the detected pulsars from the rest of the sample. Using archival catalogues we have been able to identify counterparts for the majority of the sources in our sample. Combining this with our results from the temporal analysis of the Chandra data and archival optical data, the X-ray spectral analysis, and by determining the X-ray to optical flux ratios we present preliminary classifications for the sources. In addition to the four detected pulsars, our sample includes two candidate foreground stars, 12 probable active galactic nuclei, and five unclassified sources.     

Determination of the magnetic fields of Magellanic X-ray pulsars

The 80 high-mass X-ray binary(HMXB) pulsars that are known to reside in the Magellanic Clouds(MCs) have been observed by the XMM-Newton and Chandra X-ray telescopes on a regular basis for 15 years,and the XMM-Newton and Chandra archives contain nearly complete information about the duty cycles of the sources with spin periods P_S 100 s.We have reprocessed the archival data from both observatories and we combined the output products with all the published observations of 31 MC pulsars with P_S 100 s in an attempt to investigate the faintest X-ray emission states of these objects that occur when accretion to the polar caps proceeds at the smallest possible rates.These states determine the so-called propeller lines of the accreting pulsars and yield information about the magnitudes of their surface magnetic fields.We have found that the faintest states of the pulsars segregate into five discrete groups which obey to a high degree of accuracy the theoretical relation between spin period and X-ray luminosity.So the entire population of these pulsars can be described by just five propeller lines and the five corresponding magnetic moments(0.29,0.53,1.2,2.9 and 7.3,in units of 10~(30) G cm~3).     

High Magnetic Field Pulsars and Magnetars: A Unified Picture

We propose a unified picture of high magnetic field radio pulsars and magnetars by arguing that they are all rotating high-field neutron stars but that their magnetic axes have different orientations with respect to their rotation axes. In strong magnetic fields where photon splitting suppresses pair creation near the surface, the high-field pulsars can have active inner accelerators while the anomalous X-ray pulsars cannot. This can account for the very different observed emission characteristics of the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 2259+586 and the high-field radio pulsar PSR J1814-1744. A predicted consequence of this picture is that radio pulsars having surface magnetic fields greater than about 2x1014 G should not exist.     

Spectroscopic studies of X-ray binary pulsars

Several new features of X-ray binary pulsars are revealed from recent observations with ASCA, RXTE, BeppoSAX and other X-ray observatories. Among these, I will review in this paper some recent progress in spectroscopic studies of accreting X-ray pulsars in binary systems (XBPs). First, I will discuss soft excess features observed in the energy spectra of XBPs and propose that it is a common feature for various subclasses of XBPs. Next I will present some recent results of high resolution spectroscopy with ASCA and Chandra.     

Search for radio pulsations in four anomalous X-ray pulsars and discovery of two new pulsars

We have performed deep searches for radio pulsations from four southern anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) to investigate their physical nature in comparison with the rotation powered pulsars. The data were acquired using the Parkes radio telescope with the 1.4 GHz multibeam receiver. No pulsed emission with periodicity matching the X-ray ephemeris have been found in the observed targets down to a limit of ∼0.1 mJy. A blind search has also been performed on all the 13 beams of the multibeam receiver (the central beam being pointed on the target AXP), leading to the serendipitous discovery of two new radio pulsars and to the further detection of 18 pulsars. Also a search for single dispersed pulses has been performed in the aim to detect signals similar to those of the recently discovered rotating radio transients.      

Millisecond Pulsars,their Evolution and Applications

Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are short-period pulsars that are distinguished from “normal” pulsars, not only by their short period, but also by their very small spin-down rates and high probability of being in a binary system. These properties are consistent with MSPs having a different evolutionary history to normal pulsars, viz., neutron-star formation in an evolving binary system and spin-up due to accretion from the binary companion. Their very stable periods make MSPs nearly ideal probes of a wide variety of astrophysical phenomena. For example, they have been used to detect planets around pulsars, to test the accuracy of gravitational theories, to set limits on the low-frequency gravitational-wave background in the Universe, and to establish pulsar-based timescales that rival the best atomic-clock timescales in long-term stability. MSPs also provide a window into stellar and binary evolution, often suggesting exotic pathways to the observed systems. The X-ray accretion-powered MSPs, and especially those that transition between an accreting X-ray MSP and a non-accreting radio MSP, give important insight into the physics of accretion on to highly magnetized neutron stars.     

Are radio pulsars the progenitors of anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma repeaters?

We analyze the possibility that anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) originate from radio pulsars subjected to considerable and prolonged glitches. The observed characteristics of such pulsars, their association with supernova remnants, and their evolution in the P-? diagram with allowance made for the actual age of the possible AXP and SGR progenitors are shown to be in conflict with the suggested scenario.