The binary companion of PSR J1740-3052

Abstract

We report on the identification of a near-infrared counterpart to the massive (>11 Msun) binary companion of pulsar J1740-3052. An accurate celestial position of PSR J1740-3052 is determined from interferometric radio observations. Adaptive optics corrected near-infrared imaging observations show a counterpart at the interferometric position of the pulsar. The counterpart has Ks=15.87+-0.10 and J-Ks>0.83. Based on distance and absorption estimates from models of the Galactic electron and dust distributions these observed magnitudes are consistent with those of a main-sequence star as the binary companion. We argue that this counterpart is the binary companion to PSR J1740-3052 and thus rule out a stellar mass black hole as the pulsar companion.

6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (2)

• The Parkes multibeam pulsar survey: VI. Discovery and timing of 142 pulsars and a Galactic population analysis
• Adiabatic Mass Loss and the Outcome of the Common Envelope Phase of Binary Evolution

Cited by in corpus (7)

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• CHIME Discovery of a Binary Pulsar with a Massive Non-Degenerate Companion
• A search for pulsars in subdwarf B binary systems and discovery of giant-pulse emitting PSR J0533-4524
• Wide binary pulsars from electron-capture supernovae