The White Dwarf Companion of a 2 M_sun Neutron Star

Abstract

We report the optical discovery of the companion to the 2 M_sun millisecond pulsar PSR J1614-2230. The optical colors show that the 0.5 M_sun companion is a 2.2 Gyr old He-CO white dwarf. We infer that $\dot{M}$ during the accretion phase is <10^{-2}\dot{M}_{edd}. We show that the pulsar was born with a spin close to its current value, well below the rebirth line. The spin-down parameters, the mass of the pulsar, and the age of the system challenge the simple recycling model for the formation of millisecond pulsars.

arXiv comment6 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables

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Cited by in corpus (8)

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• Formation of Millisecond Pulsars from Intermediate- and Low-Mass X-ray Binaries
• A 99-minute Double-lined White Dwarf Binary from SDSS-V
• Mass measurements and 3D orbital geometry of PSR J1933$-$6211
• Progenitor neutron stars of the lightest and heaviest millisecond pulsars
• Possible tidal dissipation in millisecond pulsar binaries