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Register a new userHubble Space Telescope detection of the double pulsar system J0737-3039 in the far-ultraviolet
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We report on detection of the double pulsar system J0737-3039 in the far-UV with the ACS/SBC detector aboard HST. We measured the energy flux F = 4.5+/-1.0e-17 erg cm-2s-1 in the 1250-1550 AA band, which corresponds to the extinction-corrected luminosity L~1.5e28 erg s-1 for the distance d=1.1 kpc and a plausible reddening E(B-V)=0.1. If the detected emission comes from the entire surface of one of the neutron stars with a 13 km radius, the surface blackbody temperature is in the range T~2-5e5 K for a reasonable range of interstellar extinction. Such a temperature requires an internal heating mechanism to operate in old neutron stars, or it might be explained by heating of the surface of the less energetic Pulsar B by the relativistic wind of Pulsar A. If the far-UV emission is non-thermal (e.g., produced in the magnetosphere of Pulsar A), its spectrum exhibits a break between the UV and X-rays.
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We investigate the age constraints that can be placed on the double pulsar system using models for the spin-down of the first-born 22.7-ms pulsar A and the 2.77-s pulsar B with characteristic ages of 210 and 50 Myr respectively. Standard models assuming dipolar spin-down of both pulsars suggest that the time since the formation of B is ~50 Myr, i.e. close to Bs characteristic age. However, adopting models which account for the impact of As relativistic wind on Bs spin-down we find that the formation of B took place either 80 or 180 Myr ago, depending the interaction mechanism. Formation 80 Myr ago, closer to Bs characteristic age, would result in the contribution from J0737-3039 to the inferred coalescence rates for double neutron star binaries increasing by 40%. The 180 Myr age is closer to As characteristic age and would be consistent with the most recent estimates of the coalescence rate. The new age constraints do not significantly impact recent estimates of the kick velocity, tilt angle between pre and post-supernova orbital planes or pre-supernova mass of Bs progenitor.
We present the first optical observations of the unique system J0737-3039 (composed of two pulsars, hereafter PSR-A and PSR-B). Ultra-deep optical observations, performed with the High Resolution Camera of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope could not detect any optical emission from the system down to m_F435W=27.0 and m_F606W=28.3. The estimated optical flux limits are used to constrain the three-component (two thermal and one non-thermal) model recently proposed to reproduce the XMM-Newton X-ray spectrum. They suggest the presence of a break at low energies in the non-thermal power law component of PSR-A and are compatible with the expected black-body emission from the PSR-B surface. The corresponding efficiency of the optical emission from PSR-As magnetosphere would be comparable to that of other Myr-old pulsars, thus suggesting that this parameter may not dramatically evolve over a time-scale of a few Myr.
The double pulsar J0737-3039 is the only known system in which the relativistic wind emitted by a radio pulsar demonstrably interacts with the magnetosphere of another one. We report radio interferometric observations of the J0737-3039 system with the VLA at three wavelengths, with each observation spanning a full binary orbit. We detect J0737-3039 at 1.6 and 4.8 GHz, derive a spectral index of -2.3 +/- 0.2, and place an upper limit on its flux density at 8.4 GHz. Orbital modulation is detected in the 1.6 GHz data with a significance of ~2 sigma. Both orbital phase-resolved and phase-averaged measurements at 1.6 GHz are consistent with the entire flux density arising from the pulsed emission of the two pulsars. Contrary to prior results, we find no evidence for unpulsed emission, and limit it to less than 0.5 mJy (5 sigma).
We observed a nearby millisecond pulsar J2124-3358 with the Hubble Space Telescope in broad far-UV (FUV) and optical filters. The pulsar is detected in both bands with fluxes F(1250-2000 A)= (2.5+/-0.3)x10^-16 erg/s/cm^2 and F(3800-6000 A)=(6.4+/-0.4)x10^-17 erg/s/cm^2, which correspond to luminosities of ~5.8x10^27 and 1.4x10^27 erg/s, for d=410 pc and E(B-V)=0.03. The optical-FUV spectrum can be described by a power-law model, f_nu~nu^alpha, with slope alpha=0.18-0.48 for a conservative range of color excess, E(B-V)=0.01-0.08. Since a spectral flux rising with frequency is unusual for pulsar magnetospheric emission in this frequency range, it is possible that the spectrum is predominantly magnetospheric (power law with alpha<0) in the optical while it is dominated by thermal emission from the neutron star surface in the FUV. For a neutron star radius of 12 km, the surface temperature would be between 0.5x10^5 and 2.1x10^5 K, for alpha ranging from -1 to 0, E(B-V)=0.01-0.08, and d=340-500 pc. In addition to the pulsar, the FUV images reveal extended emission spatially coincident with the known Halpha bow shock, making PSR J2124-3358 the second pulsar (after PSR J0437-4715) with a bow shock detected in FUV.
The relativistic double neutron star binary PSR J0737-3039 shows clear evidence of orbital phase-dependent wind-companion interaction, both in radio and X-rays. In this paper we present the results of timing analysis of PSR J0737-3039 performed during 2006 and 2011 XMM-Newton Large Programs that collected ~20,000 X-ray counts from the system. We detected pulsations from PSR J0737-3039A (PSR A) through the most accurate timing measurement obtained by XMM-Newton so far, the spin period error being of 2x10^-13 s. PSR As pulse profile in X-rays is very stable despite significant relativistic spin precession that occurred within the time span of observations. This yields a constraint on the misalignment between the spin axis and the orbital momentum axis Delta_A ~6.6^{+1.3}_{-5.4} deg, consistent with estimates based on radio data. We confirmed pulsed emission from PSR J0737-3039B (PSR B) in X-rays even after its disappearance in radio. The unusual phenomenology of PSR Bs X-ray emission includes orbital pulsed flux and profile variations as well as a loss of pulsar phase coherence on time scales of years. We hypothesize that this is due to the interaction of PSR As wind with PSR Bs magnetosphere and orbital-dependent penetration of the wind plasma onto PSR B closed field lines. Finally, the analysis of the full XMM-Newton dataset provided evidences of orbital flux variability (~7%) for the first time, involving a bow-shock scenario between PSR As wind and PSR Bs magnetosphere.
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