XMM-Newton Observations of PSR B1957+20

Abstract

We report on XMM-Newton observations of the Black Widow pulsar, PSR B1957+20. The pulsar's X-ray emission is non-thermal and best modeled with a single powerlaw spectrum of photon index 2.03^{+0.51}_{-0.36}. No coherent X-ray pulsations at the pulsar's spin-period could be detected, though a strong binary-phase dependence of the X-ray flux is observed for the first time. The data suggest that the majority of the pulsar's X-radiation is emitted from a small part of the binary orbit only. We identified this part as being near to where the radio eclipse takes place. This could mean that the X-rays from PSR B1957+20 are mostly due to intra-shock emission which is strongest when the pulsar wind interacts with the ablated material from the companion star.

arXiv commentProceedings of the 363. WE-Heraeus Seminar on: Neutron Stars and Pulsars (Posters and contributed talks) Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, Germany, May.14-19, 2006, eds. W.Becker, H.H.Huang, MPE Report 291, pp.1-4

References in corpus (6)

• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• The USNO-B Catalog
• The Evolution and Structure of Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• An X-ray Nebula Associated with the Millisecond Pulsar B1957+20
• Chandra X-Ray Observations of Nineteen Millisecond Pulsars in the Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae
• Searches for diffuse X-ray emission around millisecond pulsars: An X-ray nebula associated with PSR J2124-3358

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• Populating the Galaxy with pulsars I: stellar & binary evolution
• The light curve of the companion to PSR B1957+20
• X-ray studies of the Black Widow Pulsar PSR B1957+20
• Bounds on Neutron- Mirror Neutron Mixing from Pulsar Timings and Gravitational Wave Detections
• X-ray and Gamma-ray Emissions from Different Evolutionary Stage of Rotation Powered Millisecond Pulsars
• Populating the Galaxy with pulsars -- II. Galactic dynamics
• Discovery of γ-ray pulsation and X-ray emission from the black widow pulsar PSR J2051-0827
• A broadband radio study of the average profile and giant pulses from PSR B1821-24A
• Intrabinary Shock Emission from Black Widows and Redbacks
• Pulsed X-ray Emission from Pulsar A in the Double Pulsar System J0737-3039
• XMM-Newton Observes the Intrabinary Shock of PSR J1959+2048
• Swift monitoring of the massive X-ray binary SAX J0635.2+0533
• Observation of the Black Widow B1957+20 millisecond pulsar binary system with the MAGIC telescopes
• High energy emission from the nebula around the Black Widow binary system containing millisecond pulsar B1957+20
• A low luminosity state in the massive X-ray binary SAX J0635+0533