Constraints on Pulsar Evolution: The Joint Period-Spindown Distribution of Millisecond Pulsars

Abstract

We calculate the joint period-spindown (P-Pdot) distributions of millisecond radio pulsars (MSRP) for the standard evolutionary model in order to test whether the observed MSRPs are the unequivocal descendants of millisecond X-ray pulsars (MSXP). The P-Pdot densities implied by the standard evolutionary model compared with observations suggest that there is a statistically significant overabundance of young/high magnetic field MSRPs. Taking biases due to observational selection effects into account, it is unlikely that MSRPs have evolved from a single coherent progenitor population that loses energy via magnetic dipole radiation after the onset of radio emission. By producing the P-Pdot probability map, we show with more than 95% confidence that the fastest spinning millisecond pulsars with high magnetic fields, e.g. PSR B1937+21, cannot be produced by the observed MSXPs within the framework of the standard model.

11 pages, 2 figures, accepted by ApJL

References in corpus (18)

• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• Gravitational Radiation and Rotation of Accreting Neutron Stars
• Nuclear-Powered Millisecond Pulsars and the Maximum Spin Frequency of Neutron Stars
• The two-hour orbit of a binary millisecond X-ray pulsar
• Discovery of a Second Millisecond Accreting Pulsar: XTE J1751-305
• Discovery of a High-Latitude Accreting Millisecond Pulsar in an Ultracompact Binary
• Discovery of the accretion-powered millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J00291+5934
• RXTE Discovery of Coherent Millisecond Pulsations during an X-ray Burst from KS 1731-260
• Milli-second Oscillations in the Persistent and Bursting Flux of Aql X-1 During an Outburst
• A 1.4-GHz Arecibo Survey for Pulsars in Globular Clusters
• Discovery of the Neutron Star Spin Frequency in EXO 0748-676
• Pulsar Spin-up, Kinematics, and the Birthrate of Neutron Star Binaries
• Discovery of the Millisecond X-Ray Pulsar HETE J1900.1-2455
• Discovery of nearly coherent oscillations with a frequency of ~567 Hz during type-I X-ray bursts of the X-ray transient and eclipsing binary X 1658-298
• Discovery of a 270 Hz X-Ray Burst Oscillation in the X-Ray Dipper 4U 1916-053
• A Search for Pulsars in Quiescent Soft X-Ray Transients. I
• Discovery of Millisecond Variability in the Neutron-Star X-Ray Transient SAX J1750.8-2900
• Discovery of X-Ray Burst Oscillations from a Neutron-Star X-Ray Transient in the Globular Cluster NGC 6440

Cited by in corpus (12)

• The Neutron Star Mass Distribution
• Thermonuclear burst oscillations
• An intermediate-mass black hole in the centre of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae
• Study of measured pulsar masses and their possible conclusions
• The Spin Distribution of Fast Spinning Neutron Stars in Low Mass X-Ray Binaries: Evidence for Two Sub-Populations
• Millisecond Pulsar Ages: Implications of Binary Evolution and a Maximum Spin Limit
• Stellar Accelerations and the Galactic Gravitational Field
• Detectability of continuous gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars in the Milky Way: the population synthesis approach
• Approximate analytic expressions for circular orbits around rapidly rotating compact stars
• Pulsar Positioning System: A quest for evidence of extraterrestrial engineering
• Observational evidence for a spin-up line in the P-Pdot diagram of millisecond pulsars
• Investigation of the Millisecond Pulsar Origins by their Spin Periods at the Wavebands of Radio, X-Ray, and γ-Ray