Orbital parameters of binary radio pulsars in globular clusters and stellar interactions

Abstract

The observed distribution of globular cluster binary radio pulsars in the eccentricity versus orbital period plane can be explained as a result of binary-single star interactions. Our numerical and analytical study hints that the highest eccentricity binaries in clusters are likely to be from exchange and/or merger of a single star with a binary component, while the intermediate eccentricity systems are probably results of fly-by interactions.

Published in the Low-Frequency Radio Universe ASP Conference Series, Vol. 407, proceedings of the conference held 8-12 December 2008, at National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), TIFR, Pune, India. Edited by D. J. Saikia, D. A. Green, Y. Gupta, and T. Venturi. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific