On the Transition from Accretion Powered to Rotation Powered Millisecond Pulsars

Abstract

The heating associated with the deposition of $\gamma$-rays in an accretion disk is proposed as a mechanism to facilitate the transformation of a low mass X-ray binary to the radio millisecond pulsar phase. The $\gamma$-ray emission produced in the outer gap accelerator in the pulsar magnetosphere likely irradiates the surrounding disk, resulting in its heating and to the possible escape of matter from the system. We apply the model to PSR J1023+0038, which has recently been discovered as a newly born rotation powered millisecond pulsar. The predicted $\gamma$-ray luminosity $\sim 6\times 10^{34}\mathrm{erg}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ can be sufficient to explain the disappearance of the truncated disk existing during the 8~month$\sim 2$~yr period prior to the 2002 observations of J1023+0038 and the energy input required for the anomalously bright optical emission of its companion star.

13 pages, 3 figures, accepted in ApJL

References in corpus (5)

• A Radio Pulsar/X-ray Binary Link
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• SDSS J102347.6+003841: A Millisecond Radio Pulsar Binary That Had A Hot Disk During 2000-2001
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• Evidence for gamma-ray emission from the low-mass X-ray binary system FIRST J102347.6+003841
• NuSTAR observations and broadband spectral energy distribution modeling of the millisecond pulsar binary PSR J1023+0038
• X-ray and Gamma-ray Emissions from Different Evolutionary Stage of Rotation Powered Millisecond Pulsars
• Exploring the intrabinary shock from the redback millisecond pulsar PSR J2129-0429
• Population study for gamma-ray pulsars: (III) Radiation characteristics and viewing geometry
• Population study for gamma-ray pulsars; II Millisecond pulsars
• Infrared Observations of The Millisecond Pulsar Binary J1023+0038: Evidence for Short-Term Nature of Its Interacting Phase in 2000--2001
• Accretion, Ablation and Propeller Evolution in Close Millisecond Pulsar Binary Systems
• On the timing behavior of PSR B1259-63 under the propeller torque from a transient accretion disc
• Gamma-ray Emission from Millisecond Pulsars - An Outergap Perspective