Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 451-462 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Nature Astronomy |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 26 Jan 2023 |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2023 |
Abstract
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In: Nature Astronomy, Vol. 7, No. 4, 04.2023, p. 451-462.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Neutron star mass estimates from gamma-ray eclipses in spider millisecond pulsar binaries
AU - Clark, C. J.
AU - Kerr, M.
AU - Barr, E. D.
AU - Bhattacharyya, B.
AU - Breton, R. P.
AU - Bruel, P.
AU - Camilo, F.
AU - Chen, W.
AU - Cognard, I.
AU - Cromartie, H. T.
AU - Deneva, J.
AU - Dhillon, V. S.
AU - Guillemot, L.
AU - Kennedy, M. R.
AU - Kramer, M.
AU - Lyne, A. G.
AU - Sánchez, D. Mata
AU - Nieder, L.
AU - Phillips, C.
AU - Ransom, S. M.
AU - Ray, P. S.
AU - Roberts, M. S. E.
AU - Roy, J.
AU - Smith, D. A.
AU - Spiewak, R.
AU - Stappers, B. W.
AU - Tabassum, S.
AU - Theureau, G.
AU - Voisin, G.
N1 - Funding Information: C.J.C. thanks B. Allen for useful discussions that led to the use of posterior weights that increased the significances of the detected eclipses. We thank S. Digel, T. Johnson, M. Pesce-Rollins, D. Thompson and Z. Wadiasingh for carefully reviewing the manuscript on behalf of the Fermi-LAT collaboration. C.J.C., R.P.B, M.R.K., D.M.S. and G.V. acknowledge support from the ERC under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 715051; Spiders). This work was supported by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG). B.B. acknowledges the support of the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, under project no. 12-R&D-TFR-5.02-0700. H.T.C. is a Hubble Fellowship Program Einstein Postdoctoral Fellow. Support for H.T.C. was provided by NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program grant no. HST-HF2-51453.001 awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract no. NAS5-26555. V.S.D. was supported by the STFC. M.R.K. acknowledges support from the Irish Research Council in the form of a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship (GOIPD/2021/670: Invisible Monsters). S.M.R. is a CIFAR Fellow and is supported by the NSF Physics Frontiers Center award no. 1430284. D.M.S. also acknowledges the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) and the Canary Islands government for the financial support received in the form of grant no. PROID2020010104. Pulsar research at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics and access to the Lovell telescope is supported by a consolidated grant from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). Work at the Naval Research Laboratory was supported by the NASA Fermi programme. The MeerKAT telescope is operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is a facility of the National Research Foundation, an agency of the Department of Science and Innovation. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. The Fermi LAT Collaboration acknowledges generous ongoing support from a number of agencies and institutes that have supported both the development and the operation of the LAT, as well as scientific data analysis. These include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Energy in the United States, the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules in France, the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare in Italy, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in Japan and the K. A. Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish National Space Board in Sweden. Additional support for science analysis during the operations phase is gratefully acknowledged from the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Italy and the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales in France. This work performed in part under DOE contract no. DE-AC02-76SF00515.
PY - 2023/4
Y1 - 2023/4
N2 - Reliable neutron star mass measurements are key to determining the equation-of-state of cold nuclear matter, but these are rare. "Black Widows" and "Redbacks" are compact binaries consisting of millisecond pulsars and semi-degenerate companion stars. Spectroscopy of the optically bright companions can determine their radial velocities, providing inclination-dependent pulsar mass estimates. While inclinations can be inferred from subtle features in optical light curves, such estimates may be systematically biased due to incomplete heating models and poorly-understood variability. Using data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope, we have searched for gamma-ray eclipses from 49 spider systems, discovering significant eclipses in 7 systems, including the prototypical black widow PSR B1957\(+\)20. Gamma-ray eclipses require direct occultation of the pulsar by the companion, and so the detection, or significant exclusion, of a gamma-ray eclipse strictly limits the binary inclination angle, providing new robust, model-independent pulsar mass constraints. For PSR B1957\(+\)20, the eclipse implies a much lighter pulsar \(M_{\rm psr} = 1.81 \pm 0.07\,M_{\odot}\) than inferred from optical light curve modelling.
AB - Reliable neutron star mass measurements are key to determining the equation-of-state of cold nuclear matter, but these are rare. "Black Widows" and "Redbacks" are compact binaries consisting of millisecond pulsars and semi-degenerate companion stars. Spectroscopy of the optically bright companions can determine their radial velocities, providing inclination-dependent pulsar mass estimates. While inclinations can be inferred from subtle features in optical light curves, such estimates may be systematically biased due to incomplete heating models and poorly-understood variability. Using data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope, we have searched for gamma-ray eclipses from 49 spider systems, discovering significant eclipses in 7 systems, including the prototypical black widow PSR B1957\(+\)20. Gamma-ray eclipses require direct occultation of the pulsar by the companion, and so the detection, or significant exclusion, of a gamma-ray eclipse strictly limits the binary inclination angle, providing new robust, model-independent pulsar mass constraints. For PSR B1957\(+\)20, the eclipse implies a much lighter pulsar \(M_{\rm psr} = 1.81 \pm 0.07\,M_{\odot}\) than inferred from optical light curve modelling.
KW - astro-ph.HE
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85146881063&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41550-022-01874-x
DO - 10.1038/s41550-022-01874-x
M3 - Article
VL - 7
SP - 451
EP - 462
JO - Nature Astronomy
JF - Nature Astronomy
SN - 2397-3366
IS - 4
ER -