Why the distance of PSR J0218+4232 does not challenge pulsar emission theories

Abstract

Recent VLBI measurements of the astrometric parameters of the millisecond pulsar J0218+4232 by Du et al. have suggested this pulsar is as distant as 6.3 kpc. At such a large distance, the large γ-ray flux observed from this pulsar would make it the most luminous γ-ray pulsar known. This luminosity would exceed what can be explained by the outer gap and slot-gap pulsar emission models, potentially placing important and otherwise elusive constraints on the pulsar emission mechanism. We show that the VLBI parallax measurement is dominated by the Lutz-Kelker bias. When this bias is corrected for, the most likely distance for this pulsar is 3.15(+0.85/-0.60) kpc. This revised distance places the luminosity of PSR J0218+4232 into a range where it does not challenge any of the standard theories of the pulsar emission mechanism.

arXiv comment3 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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• A broadband radio study of the average profile and giant pulses from PSR B1821-24A
• The distance and luminosity probability distributions derived from parallax and flux with their measurement errors with application to the millisecond pulsar PSR J0218+4232
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• A new look at distances and velocities of neutron stars
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