2006/08/17 by Vyacheslav E. Zavlin · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Binary pulsar #Millisecond #Millisecond pulsar #Neutron star #Pulsar #Pulsar planet #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #X-ray pulsar #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10509-007-9297-y
published as Astrophys.SpaceSci.308:297-307,2007 · To appear in Astrophysics and Space Science, Proceedings of "Isolated Neutron Stars: from the Interior to the Surface", eds. D. Page, R. Turolla and S. Zane; 10 pages, 12 figures (four of them are color); an aknowledgement has been added
arxiv created 2006/08/17 · openalex publication_date 2007/03/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Millisecond pulsars represent an evolutionarily distinct group among rotation-powered pulsars. Outside the radio band, the soft X-ray range (∼ 0.1--10 keV) is most suitable for studying radiative mechanisms operating in these fascinating objects. X-ray observations revealed diverse properties of emission from millisecond pulsars. For the most of them, the bulk of radiation is of a thermal origin, emitted from small spots (polar caps) on the neutron star surface heated by relativistic particles produced in pulsar acceleration zones. On the other hand, a few other very fast rotating pulsars exhibit almost pure nonthermal emission generated, most probably, in pulsar magnetospheres. There are also examples of nonthermal emission detected from X-ray nebulae powered by millisecond pulsars, as well as from pulsar winds shocked in binary systems with millisecond pulsars as companions. These and other most important results obtained from X-ray observations of millisecond pulsars are reviewed in this paper, as well as results from the search for millisecond pulsations in X-ray flux of the radio-quite neutron star RX J1856.5-3754.