2007/11/30 by Paulo C. C. Freire, C. Bassa, Z. Wang +2 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Scientific Research and Discoveries #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.2900274
published as AIPConf.Proc.983:459-463,2008 · 5 pages, one table, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of "40 Years of Pulsars: Millisecond Pulsars, Magnetars, and More", August 12-17, 2007, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
arxiv created 2007/11/30 · openalex publication_date 2008/01/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We present here the results of the timing of PSR B1516+02B, a 7.95‐ms pulsar in a binary system with a ∼0.17M⊙ companion and an orbital period of 6.85 days located in the globular cluster M5. The eccentricity of the orbit (e = 0.14) has allowed a measurement of the rate of advance of periastron: ω̇ = (0.0136±0.0004)° yr−1. It is very likely that the periastron advance is due to the effects of general relativity; the total mass of the binary system is (2.14±0.08)M⊙. The small measured mass function implies, in a statistical sense, that a very large fraction of this total mass is contained in the pulsar: Mp = (1.95−0.12+0.09)M⊙ (68% probability); there is a 5% probability that the mass of this object is below 1.68M⊙. With the possible exception of PSR J1748–2021B, this is the largest neutron star mass measured to date. When combined with similar measurements made previously for Terzan 5 I and J, we can exclude, in a statistical sense, the “soft” equations of state for dense neutron matter, implying that matter at the center of a neutron star is highly incompressible. We also discuss a possible anti‐correlation between spin period and pulsar mass, and discuss its possible significance in terms of the formation mechanisms of millisecond pulsars.