Open AccessThe population of black widow pulsars
Author(s) -
King A. R.,
Beer M. E.,
Rolfe D. J.,
Schenker K.,
Skipp J. M.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08877.x
Subject(s) - physics , millisecond pulsar , pulsar , astrophysics , observable , population , astronomy , binary number , line of sight , adiabatic process , quantum mechanics , demography , arithmetic , mathematics , sociology
We consider the population of black widow pulsars (BWPs). The large majority of these are members of globular clusters. For minimum companion masses ≲0.1 M ⊙ , adiabatic evolution and consequent mass loss under gravitational radiation appear to provide a coherent explanation of all observable properties. We suggest that the group of BWPs with minimum companion masses ≳0.1 M ⊙ are systems relaxing to equilibrium after a relatively recent capture event. We point out that all binary millisecond pulsars (MSPs) with orbital periods P ≲ 10 h are BWPs (our line of sight allows us to see the eclipses in 10 out of 16 cases). This implies that recycled MSPs emit either in a wide fan beam or a pencil beam close to the spin plane. Simple evolutionary ideas favour a fan beam.