TWO MILLISECOND PULSARS DISCOVERED BY THE PALFA SURVEY AND A SHAPIRO DELAY MEASUREMENT

Journal Article · Thu Sep 20 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/757/1/89· OSTI ID:22092233

Deneva, J. S.; Camilo, F. ^[1]; Freire, P. C. C.; Champion, D. J.; Desvignes, G. ^[2]; Cordes, J. M.; Brazier, A.; Chatterjee, S. ^[3]; Lyne, A. G. ^[4]; Ransom, S. M. ^[5]; Cognard, I. ^[6]; Nice, D. J. ^[7]; Stairs, I. H. ^[8]; Allen, B. ^[9]; Bhat, N. D. R. ^[10]; Bogdanov, S. ^[11]; Crawford, F. ^[12]; Hessels, J. W. T. ^[13]; Jenet, F. A. ^[14]; Kaspi, V. M. ^[15] ; others, and

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1. Arecibo Observatory, HC3 Box 53995, Arecibo, PR 00612 (United States)
2. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie, D-53121 Bonn (Germany)
3. Astronomy Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States)
4. Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL (United Kingdom)
5. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
6. Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace, LPC2E, CNRS et Universite d'Orleans, and Station de radioastronomie de Nancay, Observatoire de Paris (France)
7. Department of Physics, Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042 (United States)
8. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 (Canada)
9. Albert-Einstein-Institut, Max-Planck-Institut fuer Gravitationsphysik, D-30167 Hannover (Germany)
10. Center for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122 (Australia)
11. Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
12. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Franklin and Marshall College, P.O. Box 3003, Lancaster, PA 17604 (United States)
13. ASTRON, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo (Netherlands)
14. Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy, University of Texas at Brownsville, Brownsville, TX 78520 (United States)
15. Department of Physics, McGill University, 3600 rue Universite, Montreal, QC H3A 2T8 (Canada)

We present two millisecond pulsar discoveries from the PALFA survey of the Galactic plane with the Arecibo telescope. PSR J1955+2527 is an isolated pulsar with a period of 4.87 ms, and PSR J1949+3106 has a period of 13.14 ms and is in a 1.9 day binary system with a massive companion. Their timing solutions, based on 4 years of timing measurements with the Arecibo, Green Bank, Nancay, and Jodrell Bank telescopes, allow precise determination of spin and astrometric parameters, including precise determinations of their proper motions. For PSR J1949+3106, we can clearly detect the Shapiro delay. From this we measure the pulsar mass to be 1.47{sup +0.43}{sub -0.31} M{sub Sun }, the companion mass to be 0.85{sup +0.14}{sub -0.11} M{sub Sun }, and the orbital inclination to be i = 79.9{sup -1.9}{sub +1.6} deg, where uncertainties correspond to {+-}1{sigma} confidence levels. With continued timing, we expect to also be able to detect the advance of periastron for the J1949+3106 system. This effect, combined with the Shapiro delay, will eventually provide very precise mass measurements for this system and a test of general relativity.

• OSTI ID: 22092233
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 757, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORY
INCLINATION
MASS
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
PHOTOMETRY
PROPER MOTION
PULSARS
SPIN
TELESCOPES