The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2023)
CHIME Discovery of a Binary Pulsar with a Massive Nondegenerate Companion
- Bridget C. Andersen,
- Emmanuel Fonseca,
- J. W. McKee,
- B. W. Meyers,
- Jing Luo,
- C. M. Tan,
- I. H. Stairs,
- Victoria M. Kaspi,
- M. H. van Kerkwijk,
- Mohit Bhardwaj,
- P. J. Boyle,
- Kathryn Crowter,
- Paul B. Demorest,
- Fengqiu A. Dong,
- Deborah C. Good,
- Jane F. Kaczmarek,
- Calvin Leung,
- Kiyoshi W. Masui,
- Arun Naidu,
- Cherry Ng,
- Chitrang Patel,
- Aaron B. Pearlman,
- Ziggy Pleunis,
- Masoud Rafiei-Ravandi,
- Mubdi Rahman,
- Scott M. Ransom,
- Kendrick M. Smith,
- Shriharsh P. Tendulkar
Affiliations
- Bridget C. Andersen
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, McGill University , 3600 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2T8, Canada ; [email protected]; McGill Space Institute, McGill University , 3550 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2A7, Canada
- Emmanuel Fonseca
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University , PO Box 6315, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA; Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology, West Virginia University , Chestnut Ridge Research Building, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
- J. W. McKee
- ORCiD
- Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics , 60 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H8, Canada; E. A. Milne Centre for Astrophysics, University of Hull , Cottingham Road, Kingston-upon-Hull, HU6 7RX, UK; Centre of Excellence for Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Modelling (DAIM), University of Hull , Cottingham Road, Kingston-upon-Hull, HU6 7RX, UK
- B. W. Meyers
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia , 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 Canada; International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), Curtin University , 1 Turner Avenue, Technology Park, Bentley, 6102, WA, Australia
- Jing Luo
- ORCiD
- Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics , 60 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H8, Canada
- C. M. Tan
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, McGill University , 3600 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2T8, Canada ; [email protected]; McGill Space Institute, McGill University , 3550 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2A7, Canada
- I. H. Stairs
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia , 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 Canada
- Victoria M. Kaspi
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, McGill University , 3600 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2T8, Canada ; [email protected]; McGill Space Institute, McGill University , 3550 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2A7, Canada
- M. H. van Kerkwijk
- ORCiD
- David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto , 50 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada
- Mohit Bhardwaj
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, McGill University , 3600 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2T8, Canada ; [email protected]; McGill Space Institute, McGill University , 3550 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2A7, Canada
- P. J. Boyle
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, McGill University , 3600 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2T8, Canada ; [email protected]; McGill Space Institute, McGill University , 3550 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2A7, Canada
- Kathryn Crowter
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia , 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 Canada
- Paul B. Demorest
- ORCiD
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory , P.O. Box O, Socorro, NM 87801, USA
- Fengqiu A. Dong
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia , 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 Canada
- Deborah C. Good
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Connecticut , 196A Auditorium Road Unit 3046, Storrs, CT, USA; Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , 162 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
- Jane F. Kaczmarek
- ORCiD
- Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, Herzberg Research Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics , National Research Council Canada, P.O. Box 248, Penticton, BC V2A 6J9, Canada
- Calvin Leung
- ORCiD
- MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Kiyoshi W. Masui
- ORCiD
- MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Arun Naidu
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, McGill University , 3600 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2T8, Canada ; [email protected]; McGill Space Institute, McGill University , 3550 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2A7, Canada
- Cherry Ng
- ORCiD
- Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto , 50 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada
- Chitrang Patel
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, McGill University , 3600 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2T8, Canada ; [email protected]; McGill Space Institute, McGill University , 3550 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2A7, Canada
- Aaron B. Pearlman
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, McGill University , 3600 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2T8, Canada ; [email protected]; McGill Space Institute, McGill University , 3550 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2A7, Canada
- Ziggy Pleunis
- ORCiD
- Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto , 50 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada
- Masoud Rafiei-Ravandi
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, McGill University , 3600 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2T8, Canada ; [email protected]; McGill Space Institute, McGill University , 3550 rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2A7, Canada
- Mubdi Rahman
- ORCiD
- Sidrat Research , P.O. Box 73527 RPO Wychwood, Toronto, ON M6C 4A7, Canada
- Scott M. Ransom
- ORCiD
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
- Kendrick M. Smith
- ORCiD
- Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics , 31 Caroline Street N, Waterloo, ON N25 2YL, Canada
- Shriharsh P. Tendulkar
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research , Mumbai, 400005, India; National Centre for Radio Astrophysics , Post Bag 3, Ganeshkhind, Pune, 411007, India
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aca485
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 943,
no. 1
p. 57
Abstract
Of the more than 3000 radio pulsars currently known, only ∼300 are in binary systems, and only five of these consist of young pulsars with massive nondegenerate companions. We present the discovery and initial timing, accomplished using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) telescope, of the sixth such binary pulsar, PSR J2108+4516, a 0.577 s radio pulsar in a 269 day orbit of eccentricity 0.09 with a companion of minimum mass 11 M _⊙ . Notably, the pulsar undergoes periods of substantial eclipse, disappearing from the CHIME 400–800 MHz observing band for a large fraction of its orbit, and displays significant dispersion measure and scattering variations throughout its orbit, pointing to the possibility of a circumstellar disk or very dense stellar wind associated with the companion star. Subarcsecond resolution imaging with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array unambiguously demonstrates that the companion is a bright, V ≃ 11 OBe star, EM* UHA 138, located at a distance of 3.26(14) kpc. Archival optical observations of EM* UHA 138 approximately suggest a companion mass ranging from 17.5 M _⊙ < M _c < 23 M _⊙ , in turn constraining the orbital inclination angle to 50.°3 ≲ i ≲ 58.°3. With further multiwavelength follow-up, PSR J2108+4516 promises to serve as another rare laboratory for the exploration of companion winds, circumstellar disks, and short-term evolution through extended-body orbital dynamics.
Keywords
