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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/26640
Title: | The Slowest Spinning X-Ray Pulsar in an Extragalactic Globular Cluster | Authors: | Zolotukhin, Ivan Yu. BACHETTI, Matteo Sartore, Nicola Chilingarian, Igor V. Webb, Natalie A. |
Issue Date: | 2017 | Journal: | THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL | Number: | 839 | Issue: | 2 | First Page: | 125 | Abstract: | Neutron stars are thought to be born rapidly rotating and then exhibit a phase of rotation-powered pulsations as they slow down to 1-10 s periods. The significant population of millisecond pulsars observed in our Galaxy is explained by the recycling concept: during an epoch of accretion from a donor star in a binary system, the neutron star is spun up to millisecond periods. However, only a few pulsars are observed during this recycling process, with relatively high rotational frequencies. Here we report the detection of an X-ray pulsar with {P}<SUB>{spin</SUB>}=1.20 {{s}} in the globular cluster B091D in the Andromeda galaxy, the slowest pulsar ever found in a globular cluster. This bright (up to 30% of the Eddington luminosity) spinning-up pulsar, persistent over the 12 years of observations, must have started accreting less than 1 Myr ago and has not yet had time to accelerate to hundreds of Hertz. The neutron star in this unique wide binary with an orbital period {P}<SUB>{orb</SUB>}=30.5 {hr} in a 12 Gyr old, metal-rich star cluster accretes from a low-mass, slightly evolved post-main-sequence companion. We argue that we are witnessing a binary formed at a relatively recent epoch by getting a ∼0.8 {M}<SUB>☉ </SUB> star in a dynamical interaction—a viable scenario in a massive, dense globular cluster like B091D with high global and specific stellar encounter rates. This intensively accreting non-recycled X-ray pulsar therefore provides a long-sought missing piece in the standard pulsar recycling picture. | URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/26640 | URL: | https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aa689d | ISSN: | 0004-637X | DOI: | 10.3847/1538-4357/aa689d | Bibcode ADS: | 2017ApJ...839..125Z | Fulltext: | open |
Appears in Collections: | 1.01 Articoli in rivista |
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Zolotukhin_2017_ApJ_839_125.pdf | Pdf editoriale | 2.09 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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