Millisecond Pulsars

This book includes nine chapters written by internationally recognized experts, covering all aspects of millisecond pulsars in one concise and cohesive volume. These aspects include pulsations powered by stellar spin, accretion and thermonuclear burning of accreted matter, their physics and utility, stellar evolution and the extreme physics of super-dense stellar cores. The book includes substantial background material as well as recent theoretical and multi-wavelength observational results. The volume will thus be useful for professional astronomers and graduate students alike. What is the behavior of the strong nuclear interaction, and what are the matter constituents at ultrahigh densities in neutron star cores? How do old neutron stars in binaries evolve? How does their magnetosphere interact with the surrounding plasma to accelerate particles and emit radiation observed at all wavelengths? These are just a few of the questions that millisecond pulsars are helping us answer and will settle in the near future with the next generation of instruments. Such quickly rotating, highly magnetized neutron stars are remarkable natural laboratories that allow us to investigate the fundamental constituents of matter and their interactions under extreme conditions that cannot be reproduced in terrestrial laboratories.

A thoroughly revised third edition, covering recent advances in the field and including an updated catalogue of all known pulsars.

McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 12-17 August 2007

We present the results of a large-area survey for millisecond pulsars (MSPs) at moderately high galactic latitudes with the 64 m Parkes radio telescope, along with follow-up timing and optical studies of the newly-discovered pulsars and several others. Major results include the first precise measurement of the mass of a fully recycled pulsar and measurement of orbital period decay in a double neutron star binary system allowing a test of general relativity along with improved measurements of the neutron star masses. In a survey of approx. 4,150 square degrees, we discovered 26 previously unknown pulsars, including 7 "recycled" millisecond or binary pulsars. Several of these recycled pulsars are particularly interesting: PSR J1528-3146 is in a circular orbit with a companion of at least 0.94 solar masses; it is a member of the recently recognized class of intermediate mass binary pulsar (IMBP) systems with massive white dwarf companions. We have detected optical counterparts for this and one other IMBP system; taken together with optical detections and non-detections of several similar systems, our results indicate that the characteristic age consistently overestimates the time since the end of mass accretion in these recycled systems. This result implies that the pulsar spin period at the end of the accretion phase is not dramatically shorter than the observed period as is generally assumed. PSR J1600-3053 is among the best high-precision timing pulsars known and should be very useful as part of an ensemble of pulsars used to detect very low frequency gravitational waves. PSR J1738+0333 has an optical counterpart which, although not yet well-studied, has already allowed a preliminary measurement of the system's mass ratio. The most significant discovery of this survey is PSR J1909-3744, a 2.95 ms pulsar in an extremely circular 1.5 d orbit with a low-mass white dwarf companion. Though this system is a fairly typical low-mass binary pulsar (LMBP) system, it has several exceptional qualities: an extremely narrow pulse profile and stable rotation have enabled the most precise long-term timing ever reported, and a nearly edge-on orbit gives rise to a strong Shapiro delay signature in the pulse timing data which has allowed the most precise measurement of the mass of a millisecond pulsar: 1.438 ± 0.024 solar masses. Our accurate parallax distance measurement, d = 1.14 +0.08 / -0.07 kpc, combined with the mass of the optically-detected companion, 0.2038 ± 0.022 solar masses, will provide an important calibration for white dwarf models relevant to other LMBP companions. We have measured the decay of the binary period of the double neutron star system B2127+11C in the globular cluster M15. This has allowed an improved measurement of the mass of the pulsar, 1.3584 ± 0.0097 solar masses, and companion, 1.3544 ± 0.0097 solar masses, as well as a test of general relativity at the 3% level. We find that the proper motions of this pulsar as well as B2127+11A and B2127+11B are consistent with each other and with one published measurement of the cluster proper motion. We have discovered three binary millisecond pulsars in the globular cluster M62 using the 100-m Green Bank Telescope (GBT). These pulsars are the first objects discovered with the GBT. We briefly describe a wide-bandwidth coherent dedispersion backend used for some of the high precision pulsar timing observations presented here.

X-ray binaries are some of the most varied and perplexing systems known to astronomers. The compact object which accretes mass from its companion star may be a white dwarf, neutron star, or black hole, whereas the donor star can be a 'normal' star or a white dwarf. The various combinations differ widely in their behaviour, and this timely volume provides a unique reference of our knowledge to date of all of them.Fifteen specially written chapters by a team of the world's foremost researchers in the field explore all aspects of the X-ray binaries. They cover the X-ray, ultraviolet, optical and radio properties of these violent systems and address key issues such as: how were these systems formed, and what will be their fate; how can we understand X-ray bursts, and how the quasi-periodic oscillations; what is the connection between millisecond radio pulsars and low-mass X-ray binaries; and how does the magnetic field of a neutron star decay?This long awaited review provides graduate students and researchers with the standard reference on X-ray binaries for many years to come.

This 2004 book provides a concise description of pulsar research, presenting key techniques, background information and results.

This book systematically presents the concept, history, implementation, theory system and basic methods of pulsar and space flight, illustrating the characteristics of pulsars. It also describes the classification of spacecraft navigation systems and the autonomous navigation technologies, as well as X-ray pulsar-based navigation systems (XPNAV) and discusses future navigation satellite systems in detail.