Search results for "Pulsars"
showing 10 items of 68 documents
Swings between rotation and accretion power in a binary millisecond pulsar
2013
It is thought that neutron stars in low-mass binary systems can accrete matter and angular momentum from the companion star and be spun-up to millisecond rotational periods1, 2, 3. During the accretion stage, the system is called a low-mass X-ray binary, and bright X-ray emission is observed. When the rate of mass transfer decreases in the later evolutionary stages, these binaries host a radio millisecond pulsar4, 5 whose emission is powered by the neutron star’s rotating magnetic field6. This evolutionary model is supported by the detection of millisecond X-ray pulsations from several accreting neutron stars7, 8 and also by the evidence for a past accretion disc in a rotation-powered milli…
Spatially resolved X-ray study of supernova remnants that host magnetars: Implication of their fossil field origin
2019
Magnetars are regarded as the most magnetized neutron stars in the Universe. Aiming to unveil what kinds of stars and supernovae can create magnetars, we have performed a state-of-the-art spatially resolved spectroscopic X-ray study of the supernova remnants (SNRs) Kes 73, RCW 103, and N49, which host magnetars 1E 1841-045, 1E 161348-5055, and SGR 0526-66, respectively. The three SNRs are O- and Ne-enhanced and are evolving in the interstellar medium with densities of >1--2 cm$^{-3}$. The metal composition and dense environment indicate that the progenitor stars are not very massive. The progenitor masses of the three magnetars are constrained to be < 20 Msun (11--15 Msun for Kes 73, …
Spin up and phase fluctuations in the timing of the accreting millisecond pulsar XTE J1807-294
2007
We performed a timing analysis of the 2003 outburst of the accreting X-ray millisecond pulsar XTE J1807-294 observed by RXTE. Using recently refined orbital parameters we report for the first time a precise estimate of the spin frequency and of the spin frequency derivative. The phase delays of the pulse profile show a strong erratic behavior superposed to what appears as a global spin-up trend. The erratic behavior of the pulse phases is strongly related to rapid variations of the light curve, making it very difficult to fit these phase delays with a simple law. As in previous cases, we have therefore analyzed separately the phase delays of the first harmonic and of the second harmonic of …
Secular spin-down of the AMP XTE J1751-305
2011
Context. Of the 13 known accreting millisecond pulsars, only a few showed more than one outburst during the RXTE era. XTE J1751-305 showed, after the main outburst in 2002, other three dim outbursts. We report on the timing analysis of the latest one, occurred on October 8, 2009 and serendipitously observed from its very beginning by RXTE. Aims. The detection of the pulsation during more than one outburst permits to obtain a better constraint of the orbital parameters and their evolution as well as to track the secular spin frequency evolution of the source. Methods. Using the RXTE data of the last outburst of the AMP XTE J1751-305, we performed a timing analysis to improve the orbital para…
Timing of the accreting millisecond pulsar IGR~J17511--3057
2010
{Timing analysis of Accretion-powered Millisecond Pulsars (AMPs) is a powerful tool to probe the physics of compact objects. The recently discovered \newigrj is the 12 discovered out of the 13 AMPs known. The Rossi XTE satellite provided an extensive coverage of the 25 days-long observation of the source outburst.} {Our goal is to investigate the complex interaction between the neutron star magnetic field and the accretion disk, determining the angular momentum exchange between them. The presence of a millisecond coherent flux modulation allows us to investigate such interaction from the study of pulse arrival times. In order to separate the neutron star proper spin frequency variations fro…
Precise determination of orbital parameters in system with slowly drifting phases: application to the case of XTE J1807-294
2007
We describe a timing technique that allows to obtain precise orbital parameters of an accreting millisecond pulsar in those cases in which intrinsic variations of the phase delays (caused e.g. by proper variation of the spin frequency) with characteristic timescale longer than the orbital period do not allow to fit the orbital parameters over a long observation (tens of days). We show under which conditions this method can be applied and show the results obtained applying this method to the 2003 outburst observed by RXTE of the accreting millisecond pulsar XTE J1807-294 which shows in its phase delays a non-negligible erratic behavior. We refined the orbital parameters of XTE J1807-294 usin…
Long-term pulse profile study of the Be/X-ray pulsar SAX J2103.5+4545
2007
Aims. We present the first long-term pulse profile study of the X-ray pulsar SAX J2103.5+4545. Our main goal is to study the pulse shape correlation either with luminosity, time or energy. Methods. This Be/X-ray binary system was observed from 1999 to 2004 by RXTE PCA, and by INTEGRAL from 2002 to 2005, during the Performance and Verification (PV) phase and the Galactic Plane Scan survey (GPS). X-ray pulse profiles were obtained in different energy ranges. The long-term spectral variability of this source is studied. The long-term flux, frequency and spin-up rate histories are computed. A new set of orbital parameters are also determined. Results. The pulse shape is complex and highly varia…
Search for multiwavelength emission from the binary millisecond pulsar PSR J1836-2354A in the globular cluster M22
2019
We present a multi-band search for X-ray, optical and $\gamma$-ray emission of the radio binary millisecond pulsar J1836-2354A, hosted in the globular cluster M22. X-ray emission is significantly detected in two Chandra observations, performed in 2005 and 2014, at a luminosity of $\sim$2-3$\times$10$^{30}$ erg s$^{-1}$, in the 0.5-8 keV energy range. The radio and the X-ray source positions are found consistent within 1$\sigma$ error box. No detection is found in archival XMM-Newton and Swift/XRT observations, compatible with the Chandra flux level. The low statistics prevents us to assess if the X-ray source varied between the two observations. The X-ray spectrum is consistent with a power…
The Role Of General Relativity in the Evolution of Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
2005
We study the evolution of Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs) and of millisecond binary radio pulsars (MSPs), with numerical simulations that keep into account the evolution of the companion, of the binary system and of the neutron star. According to general relativity, when energy is released, the system loses gravitational mass. Moreover, the neutron star can collapse to a black hole if its mass exceeds a critical limit, that depends on the equation of state. These facts have some interesting consequences: 1) In a MSP the mass-energy is lost with a specific angular momentum that is smaller than the one of the system, resulting in a positive contribution to the orbital period derivative. If th…
Spin down of an Accreting Millisecond Pulsar, the case of XTE J1814‐338
2007
We report about a timing analysis performed on the data gathered by RXTE of the accreting millisecond pulsar XTE J1814-338 during its 2003 outburst. The first full orbital solution of this binary system is given. Moreover the evolution of the phase of the pulsed emission reveals that the rotating compact object is spinning down at a rate ν˙ = (-6.7 +/- 0.7) × 10-14 Hz/s, while accreting. This behavior is considered as a result of the braking effect due to the interaction between the magnetosphere and the inner parts of the accretion disc, in the case of an accretion rate low enough to allow the expansion of the magnetospheric radius to the corotation limit. In this context we derive an esti…