Spiders are eclipsing millisecond pulsar binaries in which the pulsar ablates its low-mass companion; they are classified as black widows or redbacks based on companion mass. PSR J1932+2121 is a recently discovered Galactic-field redback millisecond pulsar (MSP) with a spin period of 14.2 ms, significantly slower than other known redbacks, and an unusually high surface…
DetailsThe process of accretion onto compact objects and its role in the production of relativistic, collimated jets remains a major open question in astronomy. Transitional millisecond pulsars (tMSPs) provide a rare opportunity to study the formation of relativistic jets in neutron stars that experience low-level accretion yet possess strong magnetic fields. By analyzing archival multiwavelength…
DetailsSpiders are millisecond pulsars in compact binary systems. The variable optical emission from their companion stars reveals how the relativistic pulsar wind irradiates the companion and interacts with its outflowing matter. By modelling this optical emission, we can precisely constrain the fundamental parameters of spiders and find super-massive neutron stars, which are usually hosted in…
DetailsCompact millisecond pulsar (MSP) binaries are crucial for understanding the formation of massive pulsars and the boundary between neutron stars (NSs) and black holes (BHs). Often referred to as “spiders” due to the cannibalistic interaction between the pulsar and its companion, these systems are broadly categorized into redbacks (RBs, with companion masses between 0.1 and…
DetailsSpectroscopic studies of compact binary millisecond pulsars (‘spiders’) are crucial for finding the most massive neutron stars. Using the largest ground-based optical telescopes to take spectra of spider binaries over their orbits, we can measure the radial velocity of their companion stars, which are bright in optical wavelengths, to weigh their neutron stars, which are…
DetailsCompact binary millisecond pulsars, also known as “spiders”, host the most massive neutron stars ever observed to date. Expanding the currently known spider population holds the key to determining the maximum neutron star mass, which has crucial implications for astrophysics, nuclear physics and gravitational wave astronomy. Searching for the variable optical emission of their companions…
DetailsCompact binary millisecond pulsar systems can host some of the most massive neutron stars. These rapidly rotating neutron stars are orbited by a much less massive companion star, which can be heated by high energy particles from the pulsar wind, causing it to become irradiated. This, along with additional sources of heating from the surface…
DetailsPulsar radio emission, associated with rapidly spinning neutron stars, enables the estimation of their distances in the Galaxy through dispersion measure (DM). The DM quantifies the dispersive delay experienced by electromagnetic radiation as it traverses ionized matter, such as the interstellar medium (ISM). By measuring this delay across a range of frequencies, astronomers can obtain…
DetailsCompact binary millisecond pulsars are captivating celestial objects comprised of fast-spinning neutron stars orbiting closely with lighter companion stars. Neutron stars are ultra-dense remnants of massive stars resulting from supernova explosions at the culmination of their lifecycles. These binary pulsars exhibit distinct behaviors due to intense gravitational interactions between the stars. Pulsars emit particle “winds”…
DetailsWe present the first multi-band optical light curves of PSR J1622-0315, among the most compact known redback binary millisecond pulsars, with an orbital period Porb=3.9 h. We find a flux modulation with two maxima per orbital cycle and a peak-to-peak amplitude of about 0.3 mag, which we attribute to the ellipsoidal shape of the tidally distorted companion star. The optical colours imply a late-F to early-G spectral type companion and do not show any detectable temperature changes along the orbit. This suggests that the irradiation of the star’s inner face by the pulsar wind is unexpectedly missing despite its short orbital period.
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