A search for radio pulsars around low-mass white dwarfs

2006/11/03 by J. van Leeuwen, Joeri van Leeuwen, R. D. Ferdman +5 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Black dwarf #Common envelope #Low Mass #Millisecond pulsar #Neutron star #Physics #Pulsar #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Sky #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #White dwarf #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11243.x

published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.374:1437-1440,2007 · 4 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS

arxiv created 2006/11/03 · openalex publication_date 2006/12/21 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Low-mass white dwarfs can be produced either in low-mass X-ray binaries by stable mass transfer to a neutron star, or in a common envelope phase with a heavier white dwarf companion. We have searched eight low-mass white dwarf candidates recently identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey for radio pulsations from pulsar companions, using the Green Bank Telescope at 340 MHz. We have found no pulsations down to flux densities of 0.6–0.8 mJy kpc−2 and conclude that a given low-mass helium-core white dwarf has a probability of <0.18 ± 0.05 of being in a binary with a radio pulsar.

Citations

• A test of general relativity from the three-dimensional orbital geometry of a binary pulsar
• Neutron Star Structure and the Equation of State
• Formation and evolution of binary and millisecond radio pulsars
• Temperature and cooling age of the white dwarf companion of PSR J0218+4232
• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue

Cited by

• NO NEUTRON STAR COMPANION TO THE LOWEST MASS SDSS WHITE DWARF
• The Lowest Mass White Dwarf