PSR J1740−3052: a pulsar with a massive companion

We report on the discovery of a binary pulsar, PSR J1740−3052, during the Parkes multibeam survey. Timing observations of the 570-ms pulsar at Jodrell Bank and Parkes show that it is young, with a characteristic age of 350 kyr, and is in a 231-d, highly eccentric orbit with a companion whose mass exceeds 11 M_⊙. An accurate position for the pulsar was obtained using the Australia Telescope Compact Array. Near-infrared 2.2-μm observations made with the telescopes at the Siding Spring observatory reveal a late-type star coincident with the pulsar position. However, we do not believe that this star is the companion of the pulsar, because a typical star of this spectral type and required mass would extend beyond the orbit of the pulsar. Furthermore, the measured advance of periastron of the pulsar suggests a more compact companion, for example, a main-sequence star with radius only a few times that of the Sun. Such a companion is also more consistent with the small dispersion measure variations seen near periastron. Although we cannot conclusively rule out a black hole companion, we believe that the companion is probably an early B star, making the system similar to the binary PSR J0045−7319.     

Timing models for the long orbital period binary pulsar PSR B1259–63

The pulsar PSR B1259–63 is in a highly eccentric 3.4-yr orbit with the Be star SS 2883. Timing observations of this pulsar, made over a 7-yr period using the Parkes 64-m radio telescope, cover two periastron passages, in 1990 August and 1994 January. The timing data cannot be fitted by the normal pulsar and Keplerian binary parameters. A timing solution including a (non-precessing) Keplerian orbit and timing noise (represented as a polynomial of fifth order in time) provides a satisfactory fit to the data. However, because the Be star probably has a significant quadrupole moment, we prefer to interpret the data by a combination of timing noise, dominated by a cubic phase term, and ω^. and x ^. terms. We show that the ω^. and x ^. terms are likely to be a result of a precessing orbit caused by the quadrupole moment of the tilted companion star. We further rule out a number of possible physical effects which could contribute to the timing data of PSR B1259–63 on a measurable level.     

The possible companions of young radio pulsars

We discuss the formation of pulsars with massive companions in eccentric orbits. We demonstrate that the probability for a non-recycled radio pulsar to have a white dwarf as a companion is comparable to that of having an old neutron star as a companion. Special emphasis is given to PSR B1820−11 and PSR B2303+46. Based on population synthesis calculations we argue that PSR B1820−11 and PSR B2303+46 could very well be accompanied by white dwarfs with mass ≳1.1 M_⊙. For PSR B1820−11, however, we cannot exclude the possibility that its companion is a main-sequence star with a mass between ∼0.7 M_⊙ and ∼5 M_⊙.     

The Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey: PSR J1811−1736, a pulsar in a highly eccentric binary system

We are undertaking a high-frequency survey of the Galactic plane for radio pulsars, using the 13-element multibeam receiver on the 64-m Parkes radio telescope. We describe briefly the survey system and some of the initial results. PSR J1811−1736, one of the first pulsars discovered with this system, has a rotation period of 104 ms. Subsequent timing observations using the 76-m radio telescope at Jodrell Bank show that it is in an 18.8-d, highly eccentric binary orbit. We have measured the rate of advance of periastron which indicates a total system mass of 2.6±0.9 M_⊙, and the minimum companion mass is about 0.7 M_⊙. This, the high orbital eccentricity and the recycled nature of the pulsar suggest that this system is composed of two neutron stars, only the fourth or fifth such system known in the disc of the Galaxy.     

Precession of the Orbital Plane of Binary Pulsars and Significant Variabilities

There are two ways of expressing the precession of orbital plane of a binary pulsar system, given by Barker & O'Connell, Apostolatos et al. and Kidder, respectively. We point out that these two ways actually come from the same Lagrangian under different degrees of freedom. Damour & Schafer and Wex & Kopeikin applied Barker & O'Connell's orbital precession velocity in pulsar timing measurement. This paper applies Apostolatos et al.'s and Kidder's orbital precession velocity. We show that Damour & Schafer's treatment corresponds to negligible Spin-Orbit induced precession of periastron, while Wex & Kopeikin and this paper both found significant (but not equivalent) effects. The observational data of two typical binary pulsars, PSR J2051-0827 and PSR J1713+0747, apparently support a significant Spin-Orbit coupling effect. Specific binary pulsars with orbital plane nearly edge on could discriminate between Wex & Kopeikin and this paper: if the orbital period derivative of the double-pulsar system PSRs J0737-3039 A and B, with orbital inclination angle i = 87.7129 deg, is much larger than that of the gravitational radiation induced one, then the expression in this paper is supported, otherwise Wex & Kopeikin's is supported.     

PSR J1753−2240: a mildly recycled pulsar in an eccentric binary system

We report the discovery of PSR J1753−2240 in the Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey data base. This 95-ms pulsar is in an eccentric binary system with a 13.6-d orbital period. Period derivative measurements imply a characteristic age in excess of 1 Gyr, suggesting that the pulsar has undergone an episode of accretion-induced spin-up. The eccentricity and spin period are indicative of the companion being a second neutron star, so that the system is similar to that of PSR J1811−1736, although other companion types cannot be ruled out at this time. The companion mass is constrained by geometry to lie above 0.48 solar masses, although long-term timing observations will give additional constraints. If the companion is a white dwarf or a main-sequence star, optical observations may yield a direct detection of the companion. If the system is indeed one of the few known double neutron star systems, it would lie significantly far from the recently proposed spin-period/eccentricity relationship.     

Determination of the orbital parameters of binary pulsars

We present a simple method for determination of the orbital parameters of binary pulsars, using data on the pulsar period at multiple observing epochs. This method uses the circular nature of the velocity space orbit of Keplerian motion and produces preliminary values based on two one-dimensional searches. Preliminary orbital parameter values are then refined using a computationally efficient linear least-squares fit. This method works for random and sparse sampling of the binary orbit. We demonstrate the technique on (i) the highly eccentric binary pulsar PSR J0514−4002 (the first known pulsar in the globular cluster NGC 1851) and (ii) 47 Tuc T, a binary pulsar with a nearly circular orbit.     

PSR J1453+1902 and the radio luminosities of solitary versus binary millisecond pulsars

We present 3 yr of timing observations for PSR J1453+1902, a 5.79-ms pulsar discovered during a 430-MHz drift-scan survey with the Arecibo telescope. Our observations show that PSR J1453+1902 is solitary and has a proper motion of  8 ±  2  mas yr⁻¹. At the nominal distance of 1.2 kpc estimated from the pulsar's dispersion measure, this corresponds to a transverse speed of  46 ± 11   km s⁻¹  , typical of the millisecond pulsar population. We analyse the current sample of 55 millisecond pulsars in the Galactic disc and revisit the question of whether the luminosities of isolated millisecond pulsars are different from their binary counterparts. We demonstrate that the apparent differences in the luminosity distributions seen in samples selected from 430-MHz surveys can be explained by small-number statistics and observational selection biases. An examination of the sample from 1400-MHz surveys shows no differences in the distributions. The simplest conclusion from the current data is that the spin, kinematic, spatial and luminosity distributions of isolated and binary millisecond pulsars are consistent with a single homogeneous population.     

The 1997 periastron passage of the binary pulsar PSR B1259−63

We report here on multifrequency radio observations of the pulsed emission from PSR B1259−63 around the time of the closest approach (periastron) to its B2e companion star. There was a general increase in the dispersion measure (DM) and scatter-broadening of the pulsar, and a decrease in the flux density towards periastron although fluctuation in these parameters were seen on time-scales as short as minutes. The pulsed emission disappeared 16 d prior to periastron and remained undetectable until 16 d after periastron.
The observations are used to determine the parameters of the wind from the Be star. We show that a simple model, in which the wind density varies with radius as r ⁻², provides a good fit to the data. The wind is highly turbulent with an outer scale of ≤10¹⁰ cm and an inner scale perhaps as small as 10⁴ cm, a mean density of ∼10⁶ cm⁻³ and a velocity of ∼2000 km s⁻¹ at a distance of ∼50 stellar radii. We find a correlation between DM variations and the pulse scattering times, suggesting that the same electrons are responsible for both effects.     

Toward an Understanding of the Periastron Puzzle of PSR B1259-63

Efforts are made to understand the timing behaviors (e.g., the jumps in the projected pulsar semimajor axis at the periastron passages) observed in the 13-year monitoring of PSR B1259-63. Planet-like objects are suggested to orbit around the Be star, which may gravitationally perturb the (probably low mass) pulsar when it passes through periastron. An accretion disk should exist outside the pulsar's light cylinder, which creates a spindown torque on the pulsar due to the propeller effect. The observed negative braking index and the discrepant timing residuals close to periastron could be related to the existence of a disk with a varying accretion rate. A speculation is presented that the accretion rate may increase on a long timescale in order to explain the negative braking index.     

A search for giant pulses in Vela-like pulsars

We have carried out a survey for 'giant pulses' in six young, Vela-like pulsars. In no cases did we find single pulses with flux densities more than 10 times the mean flux density. However, in PSR  B1706–44  we have detected giant micro-pulses very similar to those seen in the Vela pulsar. In PSR  B1706–44  these giant micro-pulses appear on the trailing edge of the profile and have an intrinsic width of ∼1 ms. The cumulative probability distribution of their intensities is best described by a power law. If the power law continues to higher intensities, then  3.7×10⁶  rotations are required to obtain a pulse with 20× the mean pulse flux. This number is similar to the giant pulse rate in PSR B1937+21 and PSR  B1821–24  but significantly higher than that for the Crab.     

Precession of the isolated neutron star PSR B1828−11

Stairs, Lyne & Shemar have found that the arrival-time residuals from PSR B1828−11 vary periodically with a period ≈500 d. This behaviour can be accounted for by precession of the radio pulsar, an interpretation that is reinforced by the detection of variations in its pulse profile on the same time-scale. Here, we model the period residuals from PSR B1828−11 in terms of precession of a triaxial rigid body. We include two contributions to the residuals: (i) the geometric effect, which arises because the times at which the pulsar emission beam points towards the observer varies with precession phase; and (ii) the spin-down contribution, which arises from any dependence of the spin-down torque acting on the pulsar on the angle between its spin     and magnetic     axes. We use the data to probe numerous properties of the pulsar, most notably its shape, and the dependence of its spin-down torque on     , for which we assume the sum of a spin-aligned component (with a weight  1 − a   ) and a dipolar component perpendicular to the magnetic beam axis (weight a ), rather than the vacuum dipole torque  ( a = 1)  . We find that a variety of shapes are consistent with the residuals, with a slight statistical preference for a prolate star. Moreover, a range of torque possibilities fit the data equally well, with no strong preference for the vacuum model. In the case of a prolate star, we find evidence for an angle-dependent spin-down torque. Our results show that the combination of geometrical and spin-down effects associated with precession can account for the principal features of the timing behaviour of PSR B1828−11, without fine tuning of the parameters.     

Hyperfast pulsars as the remnants of massive stars ejected from young star clusters

Recent proper motion and parallax measurements for the pulsar PSR B1508+55 indicate a transverse velocity of  ∼1100 km s⁻¹  , which exceeds earlier measurements for any neutron star. The spin-down characteristics of PSR B1508+55 are typical for a non-recycled pulsar, which implies that the velocity of the pulsar cannot have originated from the second supernova disruption of a massive binary system. The high velocity of PSR B1508+55 can be accounted for by assuming that it received a kick at birth or that the neutron star was accelerated after its formation in the supernova explosion. We propose an explanation for the origin of hyperfast neutron stars based on the hypothesis that they could be the remnants of a symmetric supernova explosion of a high-velocity massive star which attained its peculiar velocity (similar to that of the pulsar) in the course of a strong dynamical three- or four-body encounter in the core of dense young star cluster. To check this hypothesis, we investigated three dynamical processes involving close encounters between: (i) two hard massive binaries, (ii) a hard binary and an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) and (iii) a single stars and a hard binary IMBH. We find that main-sequence O-type stars cannot be ejected from young massive star clusters with peculiar velocities high enough to explain the origin of hyperfast neutron stars, but lower mass main-sequence stars or the stripped helium cores of massive stars could be accelerated to hypervelocities. Our explanation for the origin of hyperfast pulsars requires a very dense stellar environment of the order of  10⁶– 10⁷ stars pc⁻³  . Although such high densities may exist during the core collapse of young massive star clusters, we caution that they have never been observed.     

Drifting sub-pulses in two newly discovered pulsars

We have detected the rare phenomenon of stable, drifting sub-pulse behaviour in two pulsars discovered in the recent Swinburne intermediate latitude pulsar survey. The pulsars, PSR     and PSR J1919+0134, have approximate periods ( P ) of 1.873 and 1.6039 s respectively.
Both pulsars have multicomponent profiles, and distinct drifting is observed across them. We have identified a single drift mode in both pulsars: the drift rate for PSR     being 5.4(1) ms P ⁻¹ and 5.8(2) ms P ⁻¹ for PSR 1919+0134. The drifting is linear across the profile with no departure from linearity at the edges within the sensitivity of our observations.     

X-ray observations of PSR B1259−63 near the 2007 periastron passage

PSR B1259−63 is a 48-ms radio pulsar in a highly eccentric 3.4-yr orbit with a Be star SS 2883. Unpulsed γ-ray, X-ray and radio emission components are observed from the binary system. It is likely that the collision of the pulsar wind with the anisotropic wind of the Be star plays a crucial role in the generation of the observed non-thermal emission. The 2007 periastron passage was observed in unprecedented details with Suzaku , Swift , XMM–Newton and Chandra missions. We present here the results of this campaign and compare them with previous observations. With these data we are able, for the first time, to study the details of the spectral evolution of the source over a 2-month period of the passage of the pulsar close to the Be star. New data confirm the pre-periastron spectral hardening, with the photon index reaching a value smaller than 1.5, observed during a local flux minimum. If the observed X-ray emission is due to the inverse Compton (IC) losses of the 10-MeV electrons, then such a hard spectrum can be a result of Coulomb losses, or can be related to the existence of the low-energy cut-off in the electron spectrum. Alternatively, if the X-ray emission is a synchrotron emission of very high-energy electrons, the observed hard spectrum can be explained if the high-energy electrons are cooled by IC emission in Klein–Nishina regime. Unfortunately, the lack of simultaneous data in the TeV energy band prevents us from making a definite conclusion on the nature of the observed spectral hardening and, therefore, on the origin of the X-ray emission.     

A deep search for pulsar wind nebulae using pulsar gating

Using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) we have imaged the fields around five promising pulsar candidates to search for radio pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). We have used the ATCA in its pulsar-gating mode; this enables an image to be formed containing only off-pulse visibilities, thereby dramatically improving the sensitivity to any underlying PWN. Data from the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope were also used to provide sensitivity on larger spatial scales. This survey found a faint new PWN around PSR B0906−49; here we report on non-detections of PWNe towards PSRs B1046−58, B1055−52, B1610−50 and J1105−6107. Our radio observations of the field around PSR B1055−52 argue against previous claims of an extended X-ray and radio PWN associated with the pulsar. If these pulsars power unseen, compact radio PWNe, upper limits on the radio flux indicate that a fraction of less than 10⁻⁶ of their spin-down energy is used to power this emission. Alternatively, PSRs B1046−58 and B1610−50 may have relativistic winds similar to other young pulsars and the unseen PWN may be resolved and fainter than our surface brightness sensitivity threshold. We can then determine upper limits on the local interstellar medium (ISM) density of 2.2×10⁻³ and 1×10⁻² cm⁻³, respectively. Furthermore, we derive the spatial velocities of these pulsars to be ∼450 km s⁻¹ and thus rule out the association of PSR B1610−50 with supernova remnant (SNR) G332.4+00.1 (Kes 32). Strong limits on the ratio of unpulsed to pulsed emission are also determined for three pulsars.     

Glitch monitoring in PSRs B1046−58 and B1737−30

Large glitches were recently observed in the spin rates of two pulsars, B1046−58 and B1737−30. The glitches were characterized by fractional increases in rotation rate of 0.77 and  1.44×10⁻⁶  respectively. PSR B1737−30 is the most frequently glitching pulsar and this is the largest glitch so far observed from it. Most of the jump in the spin-down rate accompanying these glitches decayed away on short time-scales of a few days. For PSR B1737−30, there appears to be a cumulative shift in spin-down rate resulting from its frequent glitches. This probably accounts for its braking index of  −4±2  suggested by the available data, while a value of  2.1±0.2  is obtained for B1046−58.     

Discovery of 10 pulsars in an Arecibo drift-scan survey

We present the results of a 430-MHz survey for pulsars conducted during the upgrade to the 305-m Arecibo radio telescope. Our survey covered a total of 1147 deg² of sky using a drift-scan technique. We detected 33 pulsars, 10 of which were not known prior to the survey observations. The highlight of the new discoveries is PSR J0407+1607, which has a spin period of 25.7 ms, a characteristic age of 1.5 Gyr and is in a 1.8-yr orbit about a low-mass  (>0.2 M_⊙)  companion. The long orbital period and small eccentricity  ( e = 0.0009)  make the binary system an important new addition to the ensemble of binary pulsars suitable to test for violations of the strong equivalence principle. We also report on our initially unsuccessful attempts to detect optically the companion to J0407+1607, which imply that its absolute visual magnitude is >12.1. If, as expected on evolutionary grounds, the companion is an He white dwarf, our non-detection implies a cooling age of least 1 Gyr.     

Observations of six glitches in PSR B1737−30

Six glitches have been recently observed in the rotational frequency of the young pulsar PSR B1737−30 (J1740−3015) using the 25-m Nanshan telescope of Urumqi Observatory. With a total of 20 glitches in 20 yr, it is one of the most frequently glitching pulsars of the ∼1750 known pulsars. Glitch amplitudes are very variable with fractional increases in rotation rate ranging from 10⁻⁹ to 10⁻⁶. Interglitch intervals are also very variable, but no relationship is observed between interval and the size of the preceding glitch. There is a persistent increase in     , opposite in sign to that expected from slowdown with a positive braking index, which may result from changes in the effective magnetic dipole moment of the star during the glitch.     

Probing pulsar winds using inverse Compton scattering

We investigate the effects of inverse Compton scattering by electrons and positrons in the unshocked winds of rotationally-powered binary pulsars. This process can scatter low energy target photons to produce gamma rays with energies from MeV to TeV. The binary radio pulsars PSR B1259−63 and PSR J0045−73 are both in close eccentric orbits around bright main sequence stars which provide a huge density of low energy target photons. The inverse Compton scattering process transfers momentum from the pulsar wind to the scattered photons, and therefore provides a drag which tends to decelerate the pulsar wind. We present detailed calculations of the dynamics of a pulsar wind which is undergoing inverse Compton scattering, showing that the deceleration of the wind of PSR B1259−63 due to ‘inverse Compton drag' is small, but that this process may confine the wind of PSR J0045−73 before it attains pressure balance with the outflow of its companion star. We calculate the spectra and light curves of the resulting inverse Compton emission from PSR B1259−63 and show that if the size of the pulsar wind nebula is comparable to the binary separation, then the γ-ray emission from the unshocked wind may be detectable by atmospheric Cherenkov detectors or by the new generation of satellite-borne γ-ray detectors such as INTEGRAL and GLAST. This mechanism may therefore provide a direct probe of the freely-expanding regions of pulsar winds, previously thought to be invisible.