Optical photometry of 4 millisecond pulsars Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Breton R.P.
  2. van Kerkwijk M.H.
  3. Roberts M.S.E.
  4. Hessels J.W.T.
  5. Camilo F.,McLaughlin M.A.
  6. Ransom S.M.
  7. Ray P.S.
  8. Stairs I.H.
  9. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

In the last few years, over 43 millisecond radio pulsars have been discovered by targeted searches of unidentified {gamma}-ray sources found by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. A large fraction of these millisecond pulsars are in compact binaries with low-mass companions. These systems often show eclipses of the pulsar signal and are commonly known as black widows and redbacks because the pulsar is gradually destroying its companion. In this paper, we report on the optical discovery of four strongly irradiated millisecond pulsar companions. All four sources show modulations of their color and luminosity at the known orbital periods from radio timing. Light curve modeling of our exploratory data shows that the equilibrium temperature reached on the companion's dayside with respect to their nightside is consistent with about 10%-30% of the available spin-down energy from the pulsar being reprocessed to increase the companion's dayside temperature. This value compares well with the range observed in other irradiated pulsar binaries and offers insights about the energetics of the pulsar wind and the production of {gamma}-ray emission. In addition, this provides a simple way of estimating the brightness of irradiated pulsar companions given the pulsar spin-down luminosity. Our analysis also suggests that two of the four new irradiated pulsar companions are only partially filling their Roche lobe. Some of these sources are relatively bright and represent good targets for spectroscopic follow-up.

Keywords
  1. pulsars
  2. infrared-photometry
  3. visible-astronomy
  4. Wide-band photometry
  5. gamma-ray-astronomy
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2013ApJ...769..108B
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/769/108
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/769/108
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.17690108

Access

Web browser access HTML
https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/769/108
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/769/108
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/769/108
IVOA Table Access TAP
https://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tap
Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).
IVOA Cone Search SCS
For use with a cone search client (e.g., TOPCAT).
https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/769/108/table6?
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/769/108/table6?
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/769/108/table6?

History

2015-01-16T10:58:30Z
Resource record created
2015-01-16T10:58:30Z
Created
2017-06-02T08:37:20Z
Updated

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr