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ReportsA Radio Pulsar/X-ray Binary Link
Radio pulsars with millisecond spin periods are thought to have been spun up by the transfer of matter and angular momentum from a low-mass companion star during an x-ray–emitting phase. The spin periods of the neutron stars in several such low-mass x-ray binary (LMXB) systems have been shown to be in the millisecond regime, but no radio pulsations have been detected. Here we report on detection and follow-up observations of a nearby radio millisecond pulsar (MSP) in a circular binary orbit with an optically identified companion star. Optical observations indicate that an accretion disk was present in this system within the past decade. Our optical data show no evidence that one exists today, suggesting that the radio MSP has turned on after a recent LMXB phase.
1 Department of Physics, McGill University, 3600 Rue University, Montréal, Quebec, H3A 2T8, Canada.
2 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1, Canada. 3 Australia Telescope National Facility, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Post Office Box 76, Epping, New South Wales 1710, Australia. 4 Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Mail 39, Post Office Box 218, Hawthorn Vic 3122, Australia. 5 National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22901, USA. 6 Department of Physics, West Virginia University, 210 Hodges Hall, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA. 7 Astro Space Center of the Lebedev Physical Institute, Profsoyuznaya 84/32, Moscow 117997, Russia. 8 National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, WV 24944, USA. 9 Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, Netherlands. 10 Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403, 1098 SJ, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 11 Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904–4325, USA. 12 Eureka Scientific, 2452 Delmer Street, Suite 100, Oakland, CA 94602-3017, USA. 13 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at Brownsville, 80 Fort Brown, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA. 14 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 3255, Phillips Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599–3255, USA. 15 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, 37-287, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: }{aarchiba{at}physics.mcgill.ca}{
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
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