On the Formation and Progenitor of PSR J0737-3039: New Constraints on the Supernova Explosion Forming Pulsar B

Abstract

We revisit the formation of PSR J0737-3039, taking into account the most recent observational constraints. We show that the most likely kick velocity and progenitor parameters depend strongly on the consideration of the full five-dimensional PDF for the magnitude and direction of the kick velocity imparted to pulsar B at birth, the mass of pulsar B's pre-supernova helium star progenitor, and the pre-supernova orbital separation, and on the adopted prior assumptions. The priors consist of the transverse systemic velocity, the age of the system, and the treatment of the unknown radial velocity. Since the latter cannot be determined from observation, we adopt a statistical approach and use theoretical radial-velocity distributions obtained from population synthesis calculations for coalescing double neutron stars. We find that the prior assumptions about the pre-supernova helium star mass affect the derived most likely parameters significantly: when the minimum helium star mass required for neutron star formation is assumed to be 2.1Msun, the most likely kick velocity ranges from 70-180km/s; when masses lower than 2.1Msun are assumed to allow neutron star formation, the most likely kick velocity can be as low as a few km/s, although the majority of the considered models still yield most likely kick velocities of 50-170km/s. We also show that the proximity of the double pulsar to the Galactic plane and the small proper motion do not pose stringent constraints on the kick velocity and progenitor mass of pulsar B. Instead, the constraints imposed by the orbital dynamics of asymmetric supernova explosions turn out to be much more restrictive. We conclude that the currently available observational constraints cannot be used to favor a specific core-collapse and neutron star formation mechanism. (abridged)

Accepted by Physical Review D. Revised version incorporates a detailed rebuttal of the remarks made by Piran & Shaviv in astro-ph/0603649 (see Appendix A) and also minor clarifications requested by an anonymous referee

References in corpus (4)

• Getting Its Kicks: A VLBA Parallax for the Hyperfast Pulsar B1508+55
• Formation and Evolution of Compact Stellar X-ray Sources
• Two clocks in the PSR J0737--3039 binary system and their implications for the system's origin and evolution
• A remark on ``On the Formation and Progenitor of PSR J0737-3039: New Constraints on the Supernova Explosion Forming Pulsar B" by Willems et al., astro-ph/0602024

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• Implications of a VLBI Distance to the Double Pulsar J0737-3039A/B
• The Formation of the Double Pulsar PSR J0737-3039A/B
• Interstellar Scintillation of the Double Pulsar J0737$-$3039
• Gravitational signal propagation in the Double Pulsar studied with the MeerKAT telescope
• Age constraints in the double pulsar system J0737-3039