Limits on the Mass, Velocity and Orbit of PSR J1933$-$6211

Abstract

We present a high-precision timing analysis of PSR J1933$-$6211, a millisecond pulsar (MSP) with a 3.5-ms spin period and a white dwarf (WD) companion, using data from the Parkes radio telescope. Since we have accurately measured the polarization properties of this pulsar we have applied the matrix template matching approach in which the times of arrival are measured using full polarimetric information. We achieved a weighted root-mean-square timing residuals (rms) of the timing residuals of 1.23 $\mu \mathrm{s}$, 15.5$\%$ improvement compared to the total intensity timing analysis. After studying the scintillation properties of this pulsar we put constraints on the inclination angle of the system. Based on these measurements and on ${\chi }^2$ mapping we put a 2-$\sigma$ upper limit on the companion mass (0.44 M${}_{\odot }$). Since this mass limit cannot reveal the nature of the companion we further investigate the possibility of the companion to be a He WD. Applying the orbital period-mass relation for such WDs, we conclude that the mass of a He WD companion would be about 0.26$\pm$0.01 M${}_{\odot }$ which, combined with the measured mass function and orbital inclination limits, would lead to a light pulsar mass $⩽$ 1.0 M${}_{\odot }$. This result seems unlikely based on current neutron star formation models and we therefore conclude that PSR J1933$-$6211 most likely has a CO WD companion, which allows for a solution with a more massive pulsar.

References in corpus (11)

• Shapiro delay measurement of a two solar mass neutron star
• TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. I: Overview
• A New Electron Density Model for Estimation of Pulsar and FRB Distances
• PSRCHIVE and PSRFITS An Open Approach to Radio Pulsar Data Storage and Analysis
• Tempo2, a new pulsar timing package. II: The timing model and precision estimates
• Formation of millisecond pulsars with CO white dwarf companions - II. Accretion, spin-up, true ages and comparison to MSPs with He white dwarf companions
• The formation of low-mass helium white dwarfs orbiting pulsars: Evolution of low-mass X-ray binaries below the bifurcation period
• High-fidelity radio astronomical polarimetry using a millisecond pulsar as a polarized reference source
• The High Time Resolution Universe Pulsar Survey XII : Galactic plane acceleration search and the discovery of 60 pulsars
• Discovery of Five Recycled Pulsars in a High Galactic Latitude Survey
• Three New Binary Pulsars Discovered With Parkes