Discovery of a millisecond pulsar associated with Terzan 6

Abstract

Observations show that globular clusters might be among the best places to find millisecond pulsars. However, the globular cluster Terzan 6 seems to be an exception without any pulsar discovered, although its high stellar encounter rate suggests that it harbors dozens of them. We report the discovery of the first radio pulsar, PSR J1750-3116A, likely associated with Terzan 6 in a search of C-band (4-8 GHz) data from the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope with a spin period of 5.33 ms and dispersion measure, DM$\simeq$ 383 $\mathrm{pc}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}$. The mean flux density of this pulsar is approximately 3 $\mu$Jy. The DM agrees well with predictions from the Galactic free electron density model, assuming a distance of 6.7 kpc for Terzan 6. PSR J1750-3116A is likely an isolated millisecond pulsar, potentially formed through dynamical interactions, considering the core-collapsed classification and the exceptionally high stellar encounter rate of Terzan 6. This is the highest radio frequency observation that has led to the discovery of a pulsar in a globular cluster to date. While L-band (1-2GHz) observations of this cluster are unlikely to yield significant returns due to propagation effects, we predict that further pulsar discoveries in Terzan 6 will be made by existing radio telescopes at higher frequencies.

arXiv commentUpdated to match the published version, correcting the PSR name to PSR J1750-3116A without rounding

References in corpus (24)

• A New Electron Density Model for Estimation of Pulsar and FRB Distances
• Birth and Evolution of Isolated Radio Pulsars
• Fourier Techniques for Very Long Astrophysical Time Series Analysis
• Dynamical Formation of Close Binary Systems in Globular Clusters
• What is a globular cluster? An observational perspective
• The pulsar spectral index distribution
• Near-IR properties of 24 Globular Clusters in the Galactic Bulge
• Stellar Encounter Rate in Galactic Globular Clusters
• On the disruption of pulsar and X-ray binaries in globular clusters
• Eight new millisecond pulsars from the first MeerKAT globular cluster census
• Young Radio Pulsars in Galactic Globular Clusters
• A comparison of Galactic electron density models using PyGEDM
• Dynamical Formation Channels for Fast Radio Bursts in Globular Clusters
• Luminosities of recycled radio pulsars in globular clusters
• Bursts, eclipses, dips and a refined position for the luminous low-mass X-ray binary in the globular cluster Terzan 6
• Six New Recycled Globular Cluster Pulsars Discovered with the Green Bank Telescope
• Discovery and timing of ten new millisecond pulsars in the globular cluster Terzan 5
• Connecting the Young Pulsars in Milky Way Globular Clusters with White Dwarf Mergers and the M81 Fast Radio Burst
• An empirical Bayesian analysis applied to the globular cluster pulsar population
• Extending the $Z_n^2$ and $H$ statistics to generic pulsed profiles
• A discovery of Two Slow Pulsars with FAST: "Ronin" from the Globular Cluster M15
• Single Millisecond Pulsars from Dynamical Interaction Processes in Dense Star Clusters
• Discovery of a second eclipsing, bursting neutron-star low-mass X-ray binary in the globular cluster Terzan 6
• Low-Mass X-ray Binaries in Globular Clusters: Puzzles and Solutions

Cited by in corpus (1)

• PSR J1922+37: a 1.9-second pulsar discovered in the direction of the old open cluster NGC 6791