Arecibo pulsar survey using ALFA. II. the young, highly relativistic binary pulsar J1906+0746

Lorimer, D.R.; Stairs, I.H.; Freire, P.C.C.; Deshpande, A.A.; Ramachandran, R.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2289/1717

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DC Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Lorimer, D.R.	-
dc.contributor.author	Stairs, I.H.	-
dc.contributor.author	Freire, P.C.C.	-
dc.contributor.author	Deshpande, A.A.	-
dc.contributor.author	Ramachandran, R.	-
dc.date.accessioned	2007-01-05T10:49:46Z	-
dc.date.available	2007-01-05T10:49:46Z	-
dc.date.issued	2006-03-20	-
dc.identifier.citation	Astrophysical Journal, 2006, Vol.640, p 428-434	en
dc.identifier.issn	0004-637X	-
dc.identifier.issn	1538-4357 (online)	-
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/2289/1717	-
dc.description	Restricted Access. Articles older than 2 years are open to all at the journal site (alternative location). An open access version is available at arXiv.org.	en
dc.description.abstract	We report the discovery of PSR J1906+0746, a young 144 ms pulsar in a highly relativistic 3.98 hr orbit with an eccentricity of 0.085 and expected gravitational wave coalescence time of ~300 Myr. The new pulsar was found during precursor survey observations with the Arecibo 1.4 GHz feed array system and retrospectively detected in the Parkes Multibeam plane pulsar survey data. From radio follow-up observations with Arecibo, Jodrell Bank, Green Bank, and Parkes, we have measured the spin-down and binary parameters of the pulsar and its basic spectral and polarization properties. We also present evidence for pulse profile evolution, which is likely due to geodetic precession, a relativistic effect caused by the misalignment of the pulsar spin and total angular momentum vectors. Our measurements show that PSR J1906+0746 is a young object with a characteristic age of 112 kyr. From the measured rate of orbital periastron advance (7.57d+/-0.03d yr-1), we infer a total system mass of 2.61+/-0.02 Msolar. While these parameters suggest that the PSR J1906+0746 binary system might be a younger version of the double pulsar system, intensive searches for radio pulses from the companion have so far been unsuccessful. It is therefore not known whether the companion is another neutron star or a massive white dwarf. Regardless of the nature of the companion, a simple calculation suggests that the Galactic birthrate of binaries similar to PSR J1906+0746 is ~60 Myr-1. This implies that PSR J1906+0746 will make a significant contribution to the computed cosmic inspiral rate of compact binary systems.	en
dc.format.extent	190818 bytes	-
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	-
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	The University of Chicago Press for the American Astronomical Society	en
dc.relation.uri	http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?2006ApJ...640..428L	en
dc.relation.uri	http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0511523	en
dc.relation.uri	http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/499918	en
dc.rights	(2006) by the American Astronomical Society.	en
dc.subject	Stars: Pulsars: General	en
dc.subject	pulsars: individual (PSR J1906+0746)	en
dc.title	Arecibo pulsar survey using ALFA. II. the young, highly relativistic binary pulsar J1906+0746	en
dc.type	Article	en
Appears in Collections:	Research Papers (A&A)

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