Optical identification of the binary companion to the millisecond PSR J2302+4442 with the Gran Telescopio Canarias

Abstract

We report detection of the binary companion to the millisecond pulsar J2302+4442 based on the deep observations performed with the Gran Telescopio Canarias. The observations revealed an optical source with $r^{\prime }$ = 23.33$\pm$0.02 and $i^{\prime }$=23.08$\pm$0.02, whose position coincides with the pulsar radio position. By comparing the source colour and magnitudes with the white dwarf cooling predictions, we found that it likely represents a He or CO-core white dwarf and estimated its mass of 0.52${}_{-0.19}^{+0.25}$ M${}_{\odot }$ and effective temperature of 6300${}_{-800}^{+1000}$ K. Combining our results with the radio timing measurements, we set constraints on the binary system inclination angle $i=73_{-5}^{+6}$ degrees and the pulsar mass $m_p=3.1_{-2.0}^{+2.7}$ M${}_{\odot }$.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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