PULSAR BINARY BIRTHRATES WITH SPIN-OPENING ANGLE CORRELATIONS

O'Shaughnessy, Richard; Kim, Chunglee

doi:10.1088/0004-637X/715/1/230

Title: PULSAR BINARY BIRTHRATES WITH SPIN-OPENING ANGLE CORRELATIONS

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Abstract

One ingredient in an empirical birthrate estimate for pulsar binaries is the fraction of sky subtended by the pulsar beam: the pulsar beaming fraction. This fraction depends on both the pulsar's opening angle and the misalignment angle between its spin and magnetic axes. The current estimates for pulsar binary birthrates are based on an average value of beaming fractions for only two pulsars, i.e., PSRs B1913+16 and B1534+12. In this paper, we revisit the observed pulsar binaries to examine the sensitivity of birthrate predictions to different assumptions regarding opening angle and alignment. Based on empirical estimates for the relative likelihood of different beam half-opening angles and misalignment angles between the pulsar rotation and magnetic axes, we calculate an effective beaming correction factor, f{sub b,eff}, whose reciprocal is equivalent to the average fraction of all randomly selected pulsars that point toward us. For those pulsars without any direct beam geometry constraints, we find that f{sub b,eff} is likely to be smaller than 6, a canonically adopted value when calculating birthrates of Galactic pulsar binaries. We calculate f{sub b,eff} for PSRs J0737-3039A and J1141-6545, applying the currently available constraints for their beam geometry. As in previous estimates of the posterior probability densitymore »« less

Authors:

O'Shaughnessy, Richard ^[1]; Kim, Chunglee ^[2]

Center for Gravitational Wave Physics, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
Lund Observatory, Box 43, SE-221 00 Lund (Sweden)

Publication Date:: Thu May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2010

OSTI Identifier:: 21448756

Resource Type:: Journal Article

Journal Name:: Astrophysical Journal

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 715; Journal Issue: 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/715/1/230; Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; EXTRAPOLATION; LUMINOSITY; NEUTRON STARS; PROBABILITY DENSITY FUNCTIONS; PULSARS; WHITE DWARF STARS; COSMIC RADIO SOURCES; DWARF STARS; FUNCTIONS; MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS; NUMERICAL SOLUTION; OPTICAL PROPERTIES; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; STARS

Citation Formats


                    O'Shaughnessy, Richard, and Kim, Chunglee. PULSAR BINARY BIRTHRATES WITH SPIN-OPENING ANGLE CORRELATIONS.  United States: N. p., 2010. 
        Web.  doi:10.1088/0004-637X/715/1/230.

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                    O'Shaughnessy, Richard, & Kim, Chunglee. PULSAR BINARY BIRTHRATES WITH SPIN-OPENING ANGLE CORRELATIONS.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/715/1/230

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                    O'Shaughnessy, Richard, and Kim, Chunglee. 2010.  
        "PULSAR BINARY BIRTHRATES WITH SPIN-OPENING ANGLE CORRELATIONS".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/715/1/230.

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@article{osti_21448756,

  title        = {PULSAR BINARY BIRTHRATES WITH SPIN-OPENING ANGLE CORRELATIONS},

  author       = {O'Shaughnessy, Richard and Kim, Chunglee},

  abstractNote = {One ingredient in an empirical birthrate estimate for pulsar binaries is the fraction of sky subtended by the pulsar beam: the pulsar beaming fraction. This fraction depends on both the pulsar's opening angle and the misalignment angle between its spin and magnetic axes. The current estimates for pulsar binary birthrates are based on an average value of beaming fractions for only two pulsars, i.e., PSRs B1913+16 and B1534+12. In this paper, we revisit the observed pulsar binaries to examine the sensitivity of birthrate predictions to different assumptions regarding opening angle and alignment. Based on empirical estimates for the relative likelihood of different beam half-opening angles and misalignment angles between the pulsar rotation and magnetic axes, we calculate an effective beaming correction factor, f{sub b,eff}, whose reciprocal is equivalent to the average fraction of all randomly selected pulsars that point toward us. For those pulsars without any direct beam geometry constraints, we find that f{sub b,eff} is likely to be smaller than 6, a canonically adopted value when calculating birthrates of Galactic pulsar binaries. We calculate f{sub b,eff} for PSRs J0737-3039A and J1141-6545, applying the currently available constraints for their beam geometry. As in previous estimates of the posterior probability density function P(R) for pulsar binary birthrates R, PSRs J0737-3039A and J1141-6545 still significantly contribute to, if not dominate, the Galactic birthrate of tight pulsar-neutron star (NS) and pulsar-white dwarf (WD) binaries, respectively. Our median posterior present-day birthrate predictions for tight PSR-NS binaries, wide PSR-NS binaries, and tight PSR-WD binaries given a preferred pulsar population model and beaming geometry are 89 Myr{sup -1}, 0.5 Myr{sup -1}, and 34 Myr{sup -1}, respectively. For long-lived PSR-NS binaries, these estimates include a weak (x1.6) correction for slowly decaying star formation in the galactic disk. For pulsars with spin period between 10 ms and 100 ms, where few measurements of misalignment and opening angle provide a sound basis for extrapolation, we marginalized our posterior birthrate distribution P(R) over a range of plausible beaming correction factors. We explore several alternative beaming geometry distributions, demonstrating that our predictions are robust except in (untestable) scenarios with many highly aligned recycled pulsars. Finally, in addition to exploring alternative beam geometries, we also briefly summarize how uncertainties in each pulsar binary's lifetime and in the pulsar luminosity distribution can be propagated into P(R).},

  doi          = {10.1088/0004-637X/715/1/230},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/21448756},
  journal      = {Astrophysical Journal},

  issn         = {0004-637X},

  number       = 1,

  volume       = 715,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Thu May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2010},

  month        = {Thu May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2010}

}

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