X-Ray Observations of Black Widow Pulsars

Abstract

We describe the first X-ray observations of five short orbital period ($P_B<1$ day), $\gamma$-ray emitting, binary millisecond pulsars. Four of these, PSRs J0023+0923, J1124$-$3653, J1810+1744, and J2256$-$1024 are `black-widow' pulsars, with degenerate companions of mass $\ll 0.1M_{\odot }$, three of which exhibit radio eclipses. The fifth source, PSR J2215+5135, is an eclipsing `redback' with a near Roche-lobe filling $\sim$0.2 solar mass non-degenerate companion. Data were taken using the \textit{Chandra X-Ray Observatory} and covered a full binary orbit for each pulsar. Two pulsars, PSRs J2215+5135 and J2256$-$1024, show significant orbital variability while PSR J1124$-$3653 shows marginal orbital variability. The lightcurves for these three pulsars have X-ray flux minima coinciding with the phases of the radio eclipses. This phenomenon is consistent with an intrabinary shock emission interpretation for the X-rays. The other two pulsars, PSRs J0023+0923 and J1810+1744, are fainter and do not demonstrate variability at a level we can detect in these data. All five spectra are fit with three separate models: a power-law model, a blackbody model, and a combined model with both power-law and blackbody components. The preferred spectral fits yield power-law indices that range from 1.3 to 3.2 and blackbody temperatures in the hundreds of eV. The spectrum for PSR J2215+5135 shows a significant hard X-ray component, with a large number of counts above 2 keV, which is additional evidence for the presence of intrabinary shock emission and is similar to what has been detected in the low-mass X-ray binary to millisecond pulsar transition object PSR J1023+0038.

8 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, submitted to ApJ

References in corpus (7)

• A Radio Pulsar/X-ray Binary Link
• The Green Bank Telescope 350 MHz Drift-scan Survey I: Survey Observations and the Discovery of 13 Pulsars
• A parallax distance and mass estimate for the transitional millisecond pulsar system J1023+0038
• X-ray Variability and Evidence for Pulsations from the Unique Radio Pulsar/X-ray Binary Transition Object FIRST J102347.6+003841
• Constraints on Neutron Star Properties from X-ray Observations of Millisecond Pulsars
• X-ray studies of the Black Widow Pulsar PSR B1957+20
• X-ray emission from the planet pulsar B1257+12

Cited by in corpus (73)

• Peering into the dark side: magnesium lines establish a massive neutron star in PSR J2215+5135
• The Third Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-ray Pulsars
• Intra-Binary Shock Heating of Black Widow Companions
• X-ray states of redback millisecond pulsars
• X-ray Observations of XSS J12270-4859 in a New Low State: A Transformation to a Disk-Free Rotation-Powered Pulsar Binary
• Constraining Relativistic Bow Shock Properties in Rotation-Powered Millisecond Pulsar Binaries
• NICER X-ray Observations of Seven Nearby Rotation-Powered Millisecond Pulsars
• Gamma-ray pulsars: a gold mine
• X-ray Census of Millisecond Pulsars in the Galactic field
• Optical Counterparts of Two Fermi Millisecond Pulsars: PSR J1301+0833 and PSR J1628-3205
• Observations and Modeling of the Companions of Short Period Binary Millisecond Pulsars: Evidence for High-Mass Neutron Stars
• Chandra studies of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae: A deeper X-ray source catalogue, five new X-ray counterparts to millisecond radio pulsars, and new constraints to r-mode instability window
• Cosmic-ray positrons from millisecond pulsars
• 1FGL J0523.5-2529: A New Probable Gamma-ray Pulsar Binary
• Pressure Balance and Intrabinary Shock Stability in Rotation-Powered State Redback and Transitional Millisecond Pulsar Binary Systems
• Variable Heating and Flaring of Three Redback Millisecond Pulsar Companions
• A New Flaring Black Widow Candidate and Demographics of Black Widow Millisecond Pulsars in the Galactic Field
• A Chandra Look at the X-ray Faint Millisecond Pulsars in the Globular Cluster NGC 6752
• X-ray and Optical Study of the Gamma-ray Source 3FGL J0838.8$-$2829: Identification of a Candidate Millisecond Pulsar Binary and an Asynchronous Polar
• A broadband radio study of the average profile and giant pulses from PSR B1821-24A
• Classifying Unidentified X-ray Sources in the Chandra Source Catalog Using a Multiwavelength Machine-learning Approach
• Discovery of Millisecond Pulsars in the Globular Cluster Omega Centauri
• A Likely Redback Millisecond Pulsar Counterpart of 3FGL J0838.8-2829
• Keck Spectroscopy of Millisecond Pulsar J2215+5135: a Moderate-M_NS, High-Inclination Binary
• A black widow population dissection through HiPERCAM multi-band light curve modelling
• Properties of the redback millisecond pulsar binary 3FGL J0212.1+5320
• R-modes and neutron star recycling scenario
• Exploring the intrabinary shock from the redback millisecond pulsar PSR J2129-0429
• Radio Timing and Optical Photometry of the Black Widow System PSR J1953+1846A in the Globular Cluster M71
• High-Energy Variability of PSR J1311-3430
• A Deep Chandra X-ray Observatory Study of the Millisecond Pulsar Population in the Globular Cluster Terzan 5
• The GBT 350-MHz Drift Scan Pulsar Survey. III. Detection of a magnetic field in the eclipsing material of PSR J2256-1024
• Signatures of Intra-binary shock emission in the black widow pulsar binary PSR J2241-5236
• The MAVERIC survey: A transitional millisecond pulsar candidate in Terzan 5
• Discovery of a New Redback Millisecond Pulsar Candidate: 4FGL J0940.3-7610
• Identification of Faint Chandra X-ray Sources in the Core-Collapsed Globular Cluster NGC 6752
• Timing of PSR J2055+3829, an eclipsing black widow pulsar discovered with the Nançay Radio Telescope
• A New Likely Redback Millisecond Pulsar Binary with a Massive Neutron Star: 4FGL J2333.1--5527
• Ordinary X-rays from Three Extraordinary Millisecond Pulsars: XMM-Newton Observations of PSRs J0337+1715, J0636+5129, and J0645+5158
• Multi-scale time- and frequency-domain likelihood analysis with photon weights
• The MAVERIC Survey: New compact binaries revealed by deep radio continuum observations of the Galactic globular cluster Terzan 5
• Utilizing cosmic-ray positron and electron observations to probe the averaged properties of Milky Way pulsars
• Accretion And Propeller Torque In The Spin-down Phase Of Neutron Stars: The Case Of Transitional Millisecond Pulsar PSR J1023+0038
• Gamma-ray Eclipses and Orbital Modulation Transitions in the Candidate Redback 4FGL J1702.7-5655
• Multi-Wavelength Observations Of A New Redback Millisecond Pulsar 4FGL J1910.7-5320
• The Intrabinary Shock and Companion Star of Redback Pulsar J2215+5135
• The 26.3-hr orbit and multi-wavelength properties of the "redback" millisecond pulsar PSR J1306-40
• Discovery of Gamma-Ray Orbital Modulation in the Black Widow PSR J1311-3430
• Timing stability of black widow pulsars
• Strengthening the bounds on the r-mode amplitude with X-ray observations of millisecond pulsars
• Identification of the Hard X-ray Source Dominating the E > 25 keV Emission of the Nearby Galaxy M31
• Internal heating mechanisms in neutron stars
• The peculiar chemical abundance of the transitional millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038 -- Li enhancement
• Mid-UV Studies of the Transitional Millisecond Pulsars XSS J12270-4859 and PSR J1023+0038 During Their Radio Pulsar States
• Revealing a New Black Widow Binary 4FGL J0336.0+7502
• 4FGL J1120.0-2204: A Unique Gamma-ray Bright Neutron Star Binary with an Extremely Low Mass Proto-White Dwarf
• Green Bank Telescope Discovery of the Redback Binary Millisecond Pulsar PSR J0212+5321
• Periodic X-ray sources in the Massive Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae: Evidence for Dynamically Formed Cataclysmic Variables
• Chandra and HST Studies of Six Millisecond Pulsars in the Globular Cluster M13
• Discovery of the variable optical counterpart of the redback pulsar PSR J2055+1545
• The neutron star population in M28: a joint Chandra/GBT look at pulsar paradise
• A 350-MHz Green Bank Telescope Survey of Unassociated Fermi LAT Sources: Discovery and Timing of Ten Millisecond Pulsars
• Fermi Variability Study of the Candidate Pulsar Binary 2FGL~J0523.3-2530
• Search for multiwavelength emission from the binary millisecond pulsar PSR J1836-2354A in the globular cluster M22
• X-Ray and Optical Properties of Black Widows and Redbacks
• COBIPULSE: A Systematic Search for Compact Binary Millisecond Pulsars
• X-rays from Radio Millisecond Pulsars
• A census of galactic spider binary millisecond pulsars with the Nançay Radio Telescope
• Hydrodynamical simulations of wind interaction in spider systems : A step toward understanding transitional millisecond pulsars
• A Search for Millisecond-pulsar Radio Emission from the Faint Quiescent Soft X-ray Transient 1H 1905+000
• Possible counterpart signal of the Fermi bubbles at the cosmic-ray positrons
• Very high-energy gamma-ray and neutrino emission from hadronic interaction in compact binary millisecond pulsars
• Reconstruction of spider system's observables from orbital period modulations via the Applegate mechanism