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Title: Spindown of Pulsars Interacting with Companion Winds: The Impact of Magnetospheric Compression

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]
  1. Univ. of Tokyo (Japan); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  2. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  3. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
  4. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States); Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Pulsars in binary systems with strong companion winds can have the magnetopause separating their magnetosphere from the wind located well within their light cylinder. This bow-like enclosure effectively creates a waveguide that confines the pulsar's electromagnetic fields and can significantly alter its spindown. In this paper, we study the spindown of compressed pulsar magnetospheres in such systems. We parameterize the confinement as the ratio between the equatorial position of the magnetopause (or standoff distance) Rm and the pulsar's light cylinder RLC. Using particle-in-cell simulations, we quantify the pulsar spindown for a range of compressions, Rm/RLC = 1/3–1, and inclination angles, χ = 0°...90°, between magnetic and rotation axes. Our strongly confined models (Rm/RLC = 1/3) show two distinct limits. For χ = 0°, the spindown of a compressed pulsar magnetosphere is enhanced by approximately a factor of three compared to an isolated pulsar due to the increased number of open magnetic field lines. Conversely, for χ = 90°, the compressed pulsar spins down at less than 40% of the rate of an isolated reference pulsar due to the mismatch between the pulsar wind stripe wavelength and the waveguide size. We apply our analysis to the 2.77 s oblique rotator (χ = 60°) in the double-pulsar system PSR J0737-3039. With the numerically derived spindown estimate, we constrain its surface magnetic field to B* ≈ (7.3 ± 0.2) × 1011 G. We discuss the time modulation of its period derivative, the effects of compression on its braking index, and implications for the radio eclipse in PSR J0737-3039.

Research Organization:
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS); National Science Foundation (NSF); Simons Foundation; USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0023015
OSTI ID:
2466198
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 973; ISSN 0004-637X
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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