A Massive Millisecond Pulsar in an Eccentric Binary

Abstract

The recent discovery of a population of eccentric (e ~ 0.1) millisecond pulsar (MSP) binaries with low-mass white dwarf companions in the Galactic field represents a challenge to evolutionary models that explain MSP formation as recycling: all such models predict that the orbits become highly circularised during a long period of accretion. The members of this new population exhibit remarkably similar properties (orbital periods, eccentricities, companion masses, spin periods) and several models have been put forward that suggest a common formation channel. In this work we present the results of an extensive timing campaign focusing on one member of this new population, PSR J1946+3417. Through measurement of the both the advance of periastron and Shapiro delay for this system, we determine the mass of the pulsar, companion and the inclination of the orbit to be 1.828(22) Msun, 0.2656(19) Msun and 76.4(6) , under the assumption that general relativity is the true description of gravity. Notably, this is the third highest mass measured for any pulsar. Using these masses and the astrometric properties of PSR J1946+3417 we examine three proposed formation channels for eccentric MSP binaries. While our results are consistent with eccentricity growth driven by a circumbinary disk or neutron star to strange star phase transition, we rule out rotationally delayed accretion-induced collapse as the mechanism responsible for the configuration of the PSR J1946+3417 system.

10 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables

References in corpus (47)

• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Shapiro delay measurement of a two solar mass neutron star
• A Massive Pulsar in a Compact Relativistic Binary
• A statistical study of 233 pulsar proper motions
• Masses, Radii, and Equation of State of Neutron Stars
• Tests of general relativity from timing the double pulsar
• PSRCHIVE and PSRFITS An Open Approach to Radio Pulsar Data Storage and Analysis
• The international pulsar timing array project: using pulsars as a gravitational wave detector
• The NANOGrav Nine-year Data Set: Mass and Geometric Measurements of Binary Millisecond Pulsars
• NE2001.I. A New Model for the Galactic Distribution of Free Electrons and its Fluctuations
• A Three-Dimensional Map of Milky-Way Dust
• Limits on the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
• A millisecond pulsar in a stellar triple system
• On the nature and evolution of the unique binary pulsar J1903+0327
• Evidence for a Massive Neutron Star from a Radial-Velocity Study of the Companion to the Black Widow Pulsar PSR B1957+20
• Evidence for alignment of the rotation and velocity vectors in pulsars
• The NANOGrav Nine-year Data Set: Observations, Arrival Time Measurements, and Analysis of 37 Millisecond Pulsars
• Eight New Millisecond Pulsars in NGC 6440 and NGC 6441
• The Timing of Nine Globular Cluster Pulsars
• An Eccentric Binary Millisecond Pulsar in the Galactic Plane
• The Second Data Release of the INT Photometric H-Alpha Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane (IPHAS DR2)
• The Effect of Encounters on the Eccentricity of Binaries in Clusters
• The Northern High Time Resolution Universe Pulsar Survey I: Setup and initial discoveries
• Formation of millisecond pulsars with CO white dwarf companions - I. PSR J1614-2230: Evidence for a neutron star born massive
• The formation of low-mass helium white dwarfs orbiting pulsars: Evolution of low-mass X-ray binaries below the bifurcation period
• Precision southern hemisphere VLBI pulsar astrometry II: Measurement of seven parallaxes
• The millisecond pulsar mass distribution: Evidence for bimodality and constraints on the maximum neutron star mass
• Measuring Distances and Reddenings for a Billion Stars: Towards A 3D Dust Map from Pan-STARRS 1
• Formation of the Galactic Millisecond Pulsar Triple System PSR J0337+1715 - a Neutron Star with Two Orbiting White Dwarfs
• Polarization observations of 20 millisecond pulsars
• The characteristics of millisecond pulsar emission: II. Polarimetry
• The ages and colours of cool helium-core white dwarf stars
• Goals, Strategies and First Discoveries of AO327, the Arecibo All-Sky 327 MHz Drift Pulsar Survey
• The orthometric parameterisation of the Shapiro delay and an improved test of general relativity with binary pulsars
• Parkes radio searches of Fermi gamma-ray sources and millisecond pulsar discoveries
• Probing the Masses of the PSR J0621+1002 Binary System Through Relativistic Apsidal Motion
• Direct formation of millisecond pulsars from rotationally delayed accretion-induced collapse of massive white dwarfs
• The formation of the eccentric-orbit millisecond pulsar J1903+0327 and the origin of single millisecond pulsars
• THE ORBITAL ECCENTRICITIES OF BINARY MILLISECOND PULSARS IN GLOBULAR CLUSTERS
• The gamma-ray millisecond pulsar deathline, revisited - New velocity and distance measurements
• On the formation of eccentric millisecond pulsars with helium white-dwarf companions
• Asymmetric supernova in hierarchical multiple star systems and application to J1903+0327
• On the Eccentricity Excitation in Post-Main Sequence Binaries
• Einstein@Home Discovery of a PALFA Millisecond Pulsar in an Eccentric Binary Orbit
• An eccentric binary millisecond pulsar with a helium white dwarf companion in the Galactic Field
• Unusual profile variations in pulsar PSR J1022+1001 -- Evidence for magnetospheric "return currents"?

Cited by in corpus (46)

• Evidence for a maximum mass cut-off in the neutron star mass distribution and constraints on the equation of state
• The NANOGrav 12.5 yr Data Set: Observations and Narrowband Timing of 47 Millisecond Pulsars
• The NANOGrav 12.5-year Data Set: Wideband Timing of 47 Millisecond Pulsars
• The SUrvey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts I: Survey Description and Overview
• Maximum gravitational mass $M_{\mathrm{TOV}}=2.25_{-0.07}^{+0.08}{M}_{\odot }$ inferred at about $3\%$ precision with multimessenger data of neutron stars
• Measurements of ${}_{\Lambda }^3\mathrm{H}$ and ${}_{\Lambda }^4\mathrm{H}$ Lifetimes and Yields in Au+Au Collisions in the High Baryon Density Region
• Searching a Thousand Radio Pulsars for Gamma-ray Emission
• Cooling of hypernuclear compact stars
• Secular effects of Ultralight Dark Matter on Binary Pulsars
• Maximum mass cutoff in the neutron star mass distribution and the prospect of forming supramassive objects in the double neutron star mergers
• PSR J2234+0611: A new laboratory for stellar evolution
• Millisecond Pulsars, their Evolution and Applications
• A Neutron Star-White Dwarf Binary Model for Periodically Active Fast Radio Burst Sources
• Detecting stochastic gravitational waves with binary resonance
• A Massive-born Neutron Star with a Massive White Dwarf Companion
• An Observationally-Derived Kick Distribution for Neutron Stars in Binary Systems
• Mass measurements for two binary pulsars discovered in the PALFA survey
• Cooling of hypernuclear compact stars: Hartree-Fock models and high-density pairing
• Searches for Shapiro delay in seven binary pulsars using the MeerKAT telescope
• Arecibo and FAST Timing Follow-up of twelve Millisecond Pulsars Discovered in Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey
• Studies of the hybrid star structure within 2+1 flavors NJL model
• The eccentric millisecond pulsar, PSR J0955$-$6150 I: Pulse profile analysis, mass measurements and constraints on binary evolution
• On the orbital properties of millisecond pulsar binaries
• The discovery of two mildly-recycled binary pulsars in the Northern High Time Resolution Universe pulsar survey
• Convection and rotation boosted prescription of magnetic braking: application to the formation of extremely low-mass white dwarfs
• PSR J1618-3921: a recycled pulsar in an eccentric orbit
• The Discovery of Six Recycled Pulsars from the Arecibo 327-MHz Drift-Scan Pulsar Survey
• A strange star scenario for the formation of isolated millisecond pulsars
• The birth mass function of neutron stars
• Mass Distribution and Maximum Mass of Neutron Stars: Effects of Orbital Inclination Angle
• Accretion-induced collapse to third family compact stars as trigger for eccentric orbits of millisecond pulsars in binaries
• Quantifying the evidence against a mass gap between black holes and neutron stars
• Neutron star mass in dark matter clumps
• Asymmetrical mass ejection from proto-white dwarfs and the formation of eccentric millisecond pulsar binaries
• Probing the size and binding energy of the hypertriton in heavy ion collisions
• Exploring phases of dense QCD with compact stars
• Binding energy of ${}_{\Lambda }^3\mathrm{H}$ and ${}_{\Lambda }^4\mathrm{H}$ via image analyses of nuclear emulsions using deep-learning
• Eccentric millisecond pulsars by resonant convection
• Direct nonparametric multimessenger constraints on the equation of state of cold dense nuclear matter
• Fastest spinning millisecond pulsars: indicators for quark matter in neutron stars?
• A Strange Star Scenario for the Formation of Eccentric Millisecond Pulsar PSR J1946+3417
• Impact of Asymmetrical Mass Ejection from Proto-White Dwarfs on the Properties of Binary Millisecond Pulsars
• Rapidly Spinning Massive Pulsars as an Indicator of Quark Deconfinement
• On the Formation of Eccentric Millisecond Pulsars by Accretion-induced Collapse of Massive White Dwarfs
• Triple trouble with PSR J1618-3921: Mass measurements and orbital dynamics of an eccentric millisecond pulsar
• Timing observations of three Galactic millisecond pulsars