The age of PSR J1012 + 5307

PSR J1012+5307: younger than it looks?

Lorimer et al. have recently reported that the spin-down age (∼7 × 109 yr) of the low-mass binary pulsar PSR J1012+5307 is much higher than the cooling age (3 × 108 yr) of its white dwarf companion. The proposed solutions for this discrepancy are outlined and discussed. In particular, the revised cooling age estimate proposed by Alberts et al. agrees with data from other low-mass binary pulsar systems if a transition to the ‘classical’ cooling regime occurs between ∼0.14 and ∼0.28 M⊙. If this transition is excluded, PSR J1012+5307 seems to have finished its accretion phase far from the spin-up line.