The origin of single radio pulsars

Abstract

By comparing relative rates of supernovae versus formation rates of single radio pulsars, recycled pulsars, binary pulsars and X-ray binaries we put strong limits on the progenitors of radio pulsars and on the requirement of an asymmetry in the supernova. The assumption that radio pulsars are only formed in type Ib and type Ic supernovae from interacting binaries (Iben & Tutukov 1996) breaks down on the implication that in that case either the formation rate of binary pulsars (double neutron stars) should be of the order of 20%, of the single pulsar birthrate or, alternatively, almost all single pulsars (85% to 98%) should originate from Thorne-Zytkow stars. In the latter case the pulsar velocity distribution is inconsistent with observations. Also, in that case the difference between the supernova rate and the pulsar formation rate would be about one order of magnitude, i.e.: much larger than observed. Allowing type II supernovae from single stars and non-interacting binaries to form radio pulsars solves this conundrum, but then a kick is required in order to explain the high velocities of single radio pulsars. A kick is also required to understand the small birthrate, relative to the supernova rate, of binary pulsars consisting of two neutron stars.

15 pages, New Astronomy in press

References in corpus (4)

• The Pulsar Kick Velocity Distribution
• The Ocean and Crust of a Rapidly Accreting Neutron Star: Implications for Magnetic Field Evolution and Thermonuclear Flashes
• Formation of Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries. II. Common Envelope Evolution of Primordial Binaries with Extreme Mass Ratios
• Further constraints on white dwarf galactic halos

Cited by in corpus (10)

• The Evolution of Globular Clusters in the Galaxy
• Getting Its Kicks: A VLBA Parallax for the Hyperfast Pulsar B1508+55
• Gravitational Wave Astronomy: in Anticipation of First Sources to be Detected
• A Precise Proper Motion for the Crab Pulsar, and the Difficulty of Testing Spin-Kick Alignment for Young Neutron Stars
• Hyperfast pulsars as the remnants of massive stars ejected from young star clusters
• The Hard X-ray Luminosity of OB Star Populations: Implications for the Contribution of Star Formation to the Cosmic X-ray Background
• Twenty Years of Galactic Observations in Searching for Bursts of Collapse Neutrinos with the Baksan Underground Scintillation Telescope
• Fast radio burst repeaters produced via Kozai-Lidov feeding of neutron stars in binary systems
• The Signature of a Windy Radio Supernova Progenitor in a Binary System
• Estimates of the Surface Magnetic Field Strength of Radio Pulsars