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Title: FERMI LAT Pulsed Detection of PSR J0737–3039A in the Double Pulsar System

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [4]
  1. Max-Planck-Institut fur Radioastronomie (Germany)
  2. Max-Planck-Institut fur Radioastronomie (Germany); The University of Manchester (United Kingdom). Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy
  3. National Research Council Research Associate, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC (United States); Resident at Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC (United States)
  4. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford University, Stanford, CA (United States). W. W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Department of Physics
  5. North-West University, Potchefstroom (South Africa). Centre for Space Research
  6. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  7. The University of Manchester (United Kingdom). Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy; McGill Univ., Montreal, QC (Canada). Dept of Physics
  8. University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada). Department of Physics and Astronomy
+ Show Author Affiliations

Here, we report the Fermi Large Area Telescope discovery of γ-ray pulsations from the 22.7 ms pulsar A in the double pulsar system J0737–3039A/B. This is the first mildly recycled millisecond pulsar (MSP) detected in the GeV domain. The 2.7 s companion object PSR J0737–3039B is not detected in γ rays. PSR J0737–3039A is a faint γ-ray emitter, so that its spectral properties are only weakly constrained; however, its measured efficiency is typical of other MSPs. The two peaks of the γ-ray light curve are separated by roughly half a rotation and are well offset from the radio and X-ray emission, suggesting that the GeV radiation originates in a distinct part of the magnetosphere from the other types of emission. From the modeling of the radio and the γ-ray emission profiles and the analysis of radio polarization data, we constrain the magnetic inclination α and the viewing angle ζ to be close to 90°, which is consistent with independent studies of the radio emission from PSR J0737–3039A. In conclusion, a small misalignment angle between the pulsar's spin axis and the system's orbital axis is therefore favored, supporting the hypothesis that pulsar B was formed in a nearly symmetric supernova explosion as has been discussed in the literature already.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Contributing Organization:
Fermi-LAT Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1356595
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 768, Issue 2; ISSN 0004-637X
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 16 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (9)

THE SECOND FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE CATALOG OF GAMMA-RAY PULSARS journal September 2013
FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE THIRD SOURCE CATALOG journal June 2015
Bayesian model comparison and analysis of the Galactic disc population of gamma-ray millisecond pulsars journal September 2018
The Evolution of Compact Binary Star Systems journal May 2014
The Einstein@Home Gamma-ray Pulsar Survey. II. Source Selection, Spectral Analysis, and Multiwavelength Follow-up journal February 2018
The Evolution of Compact Binary Star Systems journal December 2006
The Second Fermi Large area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-Ray Pulsars text January 2013
The Einstein@Home Gamma-Ray Pulsar Survey II. Source Selection, Spectral Analysis and Multi-wavelength Follow-up text January 2017
Bayesian Model Comparison and Analysis of the Galactic Disk Population of Gamma-Ray Millisecond Pulsars text January 2018

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
gamma rays: stars
pulsars: general
pulsars: individual (PSR J0737-3039A PSR J0737-3039B)