PSR J1306--40: An X-ray Luminous Redback with an Evolved Companion

Abstract

PSR J1306--40 is a millisecond pulsar binary with a non-degenerate companion in an unusually long $\sim$1.097 day orbit. We present new optical photometry and spectroscopy of this system, and model these data to constrain fundamental properties of the binary such as the component masses and distance. The optical data imply a minimum neutron star mass of $1.75\pm 0.09M_{\odot }$ (1-sigma) and a high, nearly edge-on inclination. The light curves suggest a large hot spot on the companion, suggestive of a portion of the pulsar wind being channeled to the stellar surface by the magnetic field of the secondary, mediated via an intrabinary shock. The H$\alpha$ line profiles switch rapidly from emission to absorption near companion inferior conjunction, consistent with an eclipse of the compact emission region at these phases. At our optically-inferred distance of $4.7\pm 0.5$ kpc, the X-ray luminosity is $\sim$10${}^{33}$ erg s${}^{\text{-1}}$, brighter than nearly all known redbacks in the pulsar state. The long period, subgiant-like secondary, and luminous X-ray emission suggest this system may be part of the expanding class of millisecond pulsar binaries that are progenitors to typical field pulsar--white dwarf binaries.

8 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (19)

• A New Electron Density Model for Estimation of Pulsar and FRB Distances
• Achieving better than 1 minute accuracy in the Heliocentric and Barycentric Julian Dates
• A Radio Pulsar/X-ray Binary Link
• The Vertical Structure of Warm Ionised Gas in the Milky Way
• Estimating distances from parallaxes. II. Performance of Bayesian distance estimators on a Gaia-like catalogue
• The Joker: A custom Monte Carlo sampler for binary-star and exoplanet radial velocity data
• Optical spectroscopy and demographics of redback millisecond pulsar binaries
• The SUrvey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts I: Survey Description and Overview
• A Spectroscopic Study of the Extreme Black Widow PSR J1311-3430
• Unveiling the redback nature of the low-mass X-ray binary XSSJ1227.0-4859 through optical observations
• B-ducted Heating of Black Widow Companions
• A new gamma-ray loud, eclipsing low-mass X-ray binary
• 1FGL J1417.7-4407: A likely gamma-ray bright binary with a massive neutron star and a giant secondary
• An active, asynchronous companion to a redback millisecond pulsar
• 1FGL J0523.5-2529: A New Probable Gamma-ray Pulsar Binary
• Properties of the redback millisecond pulsar binary 3FGL J0212.1+5320
• Identification of the Optical Counterpart of Fermi Black Widow Millisecond Pulsar PSR J1544+4937
• 2FGL J0846.0+2820: A new neutron star binary with a giant secondary and variable $\gamma$-ray emission
• The 26.3-hr orbit and multi-wavelength properties of the "redback" millisecond pulsar PSR J1306-40

Cited by in corpus (14)

• A New Flaring Black Widow Candidate and Demographics of Black Widow Millisecond Pulsars in the Galactic Field
• Evidence for mass-dependent peculiar velocities in compact object binaries: Towards better constraints on natal kicks
• An Observationally-Derived Kick Distribution for Neutron Stars in Binary Systems
• Discovery of a New Redback Millisecond Pulsar Candidate: 4FGL J0940.3-7610
• Identifying the formation mechanism of redback pulsars
• The SUrvey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts V: Recent Discoveries and Full Timing Solutions
• 4FGL J1120.0-2204: A Unique Gamma-ray Bright Neutron Star Binary with an Extremely Low Mass Proto-White Dwarf
• A new redback pulsar candidate 4FGL J2054.2+6904
• 1RXH J082623.6-505741: a new long-period cataclysmic variable with an evolved donor and a low mass transfer rate
• Discovery of the variable optical counterpart of the redback pulsar PSR J2055+1545
• Periodicity search for Pulsar Binaries with TESS
• COBIPULSE: A Systematic Search for Compact Binary Millisecond Pulsars
• Convective dynamos of black widow companions
• Nature of 4FGL J2249.4+6229: Evidence for a redback system with a cool companion and low X-ray and $\gamma$-ray luminosities