Observational evidence for a spin-up line in the P-Pdot diagram of millisecond pulsars

Abstract

It is believed that millisecond pulsars attain their fast spins by accreting matter and angular momentum from companion stars. Theoretical modelling of the accretion process suggests a spin-up line in the period-period derivative ($P$-$\dot{P}$) diagram of millisecond pulsars, which plays an important role in population studies of radio millisecond pulsars and accreting neutron stars in X-ray binaries. Here we present observational evidence for such a spin-up line using a sample of 143 radio pulsars with $P$ < 30 ms. We also find that PSRs~J1823$-$3021A and J1824$-$2452A, located near the classic spin-up line, are consistent with the broad population of millisecond pulsars. Finally, we show that our approach of Bayesian inference can probe accretion physics, allowing constraints to be placed on the accretion rate and the disk-magnetosphere interaction.

10 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication by ApJL

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