The Mass of a Millisecond Pulsar

Abstract

We report on nearly two years of timing observations of the low-mass binary millisecond pulsar, PSR J1909-3744 with the Caltech-Parkes-Swinburne Recorder II (CPSR2), a new instrument that gives unprecedented timing precision. Daily observations give a weighted rms residual of 74 ns, indicating an extremely low level of systematic error. We have greatly improved upon the previous parallax and proper motion measurements of PSR J1909-3744, yielding a distance of $1.14_{-0.03}^{+0.04}$ kpc and transverse velocity of $(200_{-6}^{+7})$ km s${}^{-1}$. The system's orbital eccentricity is just 1.35(12)$\times 10^{-7}$, the smallest yet recorded. Since their discovery, the masses of the rapidly rotating millisecond pulsars have remained a mystery, with the recycling hypothesis arguing for heavy objects, and the accretion-induced collapse of a white dwarf more consistent with neutron stars less than the Chandrashkar limit. Fortuitously, PSR J1909-3744 is an edge-on system, and our data have allowed the measurement of the range and shape of the Shapiro delay to high accuracy, giving the first precise determination of a millisecond pulsar mass to date, $m_p=(1.438\pm 0.024)M_{\odot }$. The mass of PSR J1909-3744 is at the upper edge of the range observed in mildly recycled pulsars in double neutron star systems, consistent with the the recycling hypothesis. It appears that the production of millisecond pulsars is possible with the accretion of less than $0.2M_{\odot }$.

arXiv comment12 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

References in corpus (10)

• A Double-Pulsar System - A Rare Laboratory for Relativistic Gravity and Plasma Physics
• Neutron Star Mass Measurements. I. Radio Pulsars
• Gravitational Waves Probe the Coalescence Rate of Massive Black Hole Binaries
• Twenty-One Millisecond Pulsars in Terzan 5 Using the Green Bank Telescope
• Precision Timing Measurements of PSR J1012+5307
• A test of general relativity from the three-dimensional orbital geometry of a binary pulsar
• Millisecond Pulsar Velocities
• PSR J1909-3744, a Binary Millisecond Pulsar with a Very Small Duty Cycle
• A New Method for Obtaining Binary Pulsar Distances and its Implications for Tests of General Relativity
• Radio astronomical polarimetry and phase-coherent matrix convolution

Cited by in corpus (75)

• Shapiro delay measurement of a two solar mass neutron star
• A Massive Pulsar in a Compact Relativistic Binary
• Neutron Star Observations: Prognosis for Equation of State Constraints
• Masses, Radii, and Equation of State of Neutron Stars
• The NANOGrav Nine-year Data Set: Mass and Geometric Measurements of Binary Millisecond Pulsars
• DSPSR: Digital Signal Processing Software for Pulsar Astronomy
• The relativistic pulsar-white dwarf binary PSR J1738+0333 II. The most stringent test of scalar-tensor gravity
• Cold Quark Matter
• On the Mass Distribution and Birth Masses of Neutron Stars
• The Neutron Star Mass Distribution
• Evidence for a Massive Neutron Star from a Radial-Velocity Study of the Companion to the Black Widow Pulsar PSR B1957+20
• A 2.1 Solar Mass Pulsar Measured by Relativistic Orbital Decay
• On the rarity of double black hole binaries: consequences for gravitational-wave detection
• Formation of millisecond pulsars with CO white dwarf companions - II. Accretion, spin-up, true ages and comparison to MSPs with He white dwarf companions
• Dense Matter in Compact Stars: Theoretical Developments and Observational Constraints
• Timing stability of millisecond pulsars and prospects for gravitational-wave detection
• Prospects for Probing the Spacetime of Sgr A* with Pulsars
• Transformation of a Star into a Planet in a Millisecond Pulsar Binary
• Study of measured pulsar masses and their possible conclusions
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Bayesian Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• The relativistic pulsar-white dwarf binary PSR J1738+0333 I. Mass determination and evolutionary history
• Gravitational-radiation losses from the pulsar-white-dwarf binary PSR J1141-6545
• Evolution towards and beyond accretion-induced collapse of massive white dwarfs and formation of millisecond pulsars
• Further Evidence for the Bimodal Distribution of Neutron Star Masses
• Black Hole Spin Evolution: Implications for Short-hard Gamma Ray Bursts and Gravitational Wave Detection
• A Massive Neutron Star in the Globular Cluster M5
• The formation of low-mass helium white dwarfs orbiting pulsars: Evolution of low-mass X-ray binaries below the bifurcation period
• Modified TOV in gravity's rainbow: properties of neutron stars and dynamical stability conditions
• The masses of PSR J1911-5958A and its white dwarf companion
• Determination of the mass of the neutron star in SMC X-1, LMC X-4 and Cen X-3 with VLT/UVES
• Formation of the Galactic Millisecond Pulsar Triple System PSR J0337+1715 - a Neutron Star with Two Orbiting White Dwarfs
• 3D Model Atmospheres for Extremely Low-Mass White Dwarfs
• Discovery of the Eclipsing Detached Double White Dwarf Binary NLTT 11748
• Radio Astronomical Polarimetry and High-Precision Pulsar Timing
• Neutron stars structure in the context of massive gravity
• A Hard Look at the Neutron Stars and Accretion Disks in 4U 1636-53, GX 17+2, and 4U 1705-44 with $\text{NuSTAR}$
• Charged compact objects in the linear regime
• Probing Dark Matter Substructure with Pulsar Timing
• A precise mass measurement of the intermediate-mass binary pulsar PSR J1802-2124
• PSR J1738+0333: The First Millisecond Pulsar + Pulsating White Dwarf Binary
• Systematic and Stochastic Variations in Pulsar Dispersion Measures
• Stellar objects in the quadratic regime
• Discovery of Five Recycled Pulsars in a High Galactic Latitude Survey
• Recycling of Neutron Stars in Common Envelopes and Hypernova Explosions
• The High Time Resolution Universe Survey II: Discovery of 5 Millisecond Pulsars
• Double and single recycled pulsars: an evolutionary puzzle?
• Timing the Eccentric Binary Millisecond Pulsar in NGC 1851
• Timing of a Young Mildly Recycled Pulsar with a Massive White Dwarf Companion
• Superbursts from Strange Stars
• The NANOGrav 12.5-year Data Set: Bayesian Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Collapse of Neutron Stars to Black Holes in Binary Systems: A Model for Short Gamma Ray Bursts
• A Shapiro delay detection in the binary system hosting the millisecond pulsar PSR J1910-5959A
• Rotating hybrid compact stars
• Lutz-Kelker bias in pulsar parallax measurements
• Formation of Millisecond Pulsars with Low-Mass Helium White Dwarf Companions in Very Compact Binaries
• Effects of Gravitational Lensing and Companion Motion on the Binary Pulsar Timing
• Searches for Shapiro delay in seven binary pulsars using the MeerKAT telescope
• Formation of millisecond pulsars with long orbital periods by accretion-induced collapse of white-dwarfs
• Evolving ONe WD+He star systems to intermediate-mass binary pulsars
• The ultra-cool white dwarf companion of PSR J0751+1807
• Formation of Binary Millisecond Pulsars by Accretion-Induced Collapse of White Dwarfs under Wind-Driven Evolution
• The double degenerate system NLTT 11748
• The ultracool helium-atmosphere white dwarf companion of PSR J0740+6620?
• Dynamical constraints on some orbital and physical properties of the WD0137-349 A/B binary system
• The evolution of low mass, close binary systems with a neutron star component: a detailed grid
• Constraints on conformal ultralight dark matter couplings from the European Pulsar Timing Array
• A long-period pre-ELM system discovered from LAMOST medium-resolution survey
• Investigating cannibalistic millisecond pulsar binaries using MESA: New constraints from pulsar spin and mass evolution
• Dynamically Forming Extremely Low-Mass White Dwarf Binaries in Wide Orbits
• On the occurrence and detectability of Bose-Einstein condensation in helium white dwarfs
• Thermal X-ray emission identified from the millisecond pulsar PSR J1909-3744
• On the effect of pulsar evaporation on the cooling of white dwarfs
• Formation of millisecond pulsars with wide orbits
• Analytical model of millisecond pulsar PSR J0514-4002A
• On Pulsar-Driven Mass Ejection in Low-Mass X-ray Binaries